Taranau
by Mathrafal
Summary: Albus finds a new puzzle and Harry is raised by an unknown factor. Being rewritten.
1. A Deal with the Devil

Disclaimer (although I'm pretty sure it isn't technically a legal requirement): I'm not JK Rowling. I don't own Harry Potter or any other things to do with the Harry Potter universe.

AN: First chapter of the new rewrite. Hopefully I'll be putting chapters out every other day. Please review.

Hogwarts Castle stood before them. Its firelight shone down from the battlements and out of the arched windows. The Winged Boar Gate held a small gemstone at the top of its arc, the stone glowed a soft golden light and a web of blue light formed a dome over the whole castle. A gust of wind howled through the Forbidden Forest carrying leaves with it. The blue light faded into nothingness. A black armour made of thousands of tiny black scales covered their bodies from head to toe. Their faces couldn't be seen under the armour. The one who stood on the left had three severed heads in a triangle pointing down painted onto their front. Their armour had no gaps for breath or sight but a face had been painted on. It had bright blue eyes and thin grey lips. To this one's right stood another, this one had a nest of three eggs, one ruby, one sapphire, one emerald, with a large white dragon curled protectively around the clutch on their front. The painted face had grey eyes and thin blue lips.

The two stepped through the Winged Boar Gate. They could hear the chatter of a few hundred voices celebrating in the night. The stars whispered above them, howls pierced the night. They walked up the path to the great oak doors banded in iron in three places which marked the entrance to Hogwarts Castle. The one on the left put a hand to each door. The doors shimmered and faded into nothingness. Once they passed through the space where the doors had been the doors reappeared in their place as they had been before. The noise of celebration was much louder, it came from the door to the right. The one marked by a dragon and her clutch raised a hand. The torch braces opened. The torchlight died as the torches struck the floor.

The entrance hall was cast into darkness. The noise that had been made was covered by the noise that the inhabitants of Hogwarts Castle were making in the next room. The darkness began to swirl, slithers of light appeared in the air before quickly being filled by the darkness that was rushing about the room. The one marked by three severed heads took a step backwards, the other a step forwards. The darkness rushed forward and struck the oak door before them. The doors were thrown open with great force, they slammed against the walls inside the room. The pair could see a bright golden light at the far end of the great hall.

Four long tables of students fell silent. A bearded man rose at the table at the far end of the hall and he had not noticed them but rather the golden light in front of him. They stepped out from the shadows of the entrance hall. Stone beasts lined the walls on pedestals and in the corners stood four suits of armour, the like of Muggle knights from when the castle was still young. The bearded man noticed them then. His eyes looked over their bodies and armour, he looked impressed. Even the most prestigious Goblin armourers would be hard-pressed to make armour half as well-crafted as theirs.

The two proceeded forwards in silence, the shadows of the previous room still clinging to the one on the right's back and arms, slowly dripping to the floor and disappearing in the candlelight. When they had come half of the way across the hall the golden light rushed forward, it was a woman made of golden light. Her hair when standing still would have run all the way down her back, as it was it rippled and shone brightly, brighter than the rest of her. She leapt at the one on the left, with the severed head markings who took the young woman into their arms and spun to dispel her momentum before placing her on her own feet and allowing her to hug the other.

The bearded man spoke. "Excuse me. Who are you? What are you doing here?" The pair glanced at him before looking back at the young woman. The man had a white beard and white hair, he had blue eyes that twinkled rapidly and a purple robe with golden stars on it. The one marked by three heads met his eyes and knew the man as fully as the man knew himself. He held a white wand made of elder which showed age, though it was in perfect condition for what it was. Although they had seen the death of people, and of peoples, they shivered when they saw it. It was steeped in the aura of Death.

The golden woman spoke next. "Uncle Carrog, please, for me. Protect him while I can't. Take him to your hearth, give him a place to sleep and to grow and food to eat when he is hungry and water to drink for when he is thirsty, please Uncle." The young golden woman had a tight grip of the one on the right's arm. Tears of golden light rolled down her cheeks as she begged and the very stones of Hogwarts Castle shook in support of her cause. A great thundering could be heard and there was a roar in the distance. The stone beasts that had stood on pedestals had taken foot upon the ground, the woman's eyes had closed. Her magic was lacking in control.

The one marked by three severed heads stroked the golden hair and soothed her. "My niece Cassie, I would help you but my home is no place for a child, sleep, hunger, growth, thirst, these are not things my hearth was built to tame. We cannot care for him as he should be cared for."

"I'll take him when reaches age, and I'll care for him then. It will be only nine years and three seasons. For you that must seem like only a day has passed, you know there shall be no real burden on your part."

"Then let us make terms. I shall take him into my home, set a place for him to sleep and a seat by my fire and I shall raise him as my own. When he comes to you it shall be your duty to provide him with all he needs. Be it dust and ashes, shadows and ice, fire and food. He shall be yours to care for, for all seasons but the summer." She nodded into his armoured chest. The stone creatures returned to their pedestals. The stones of Hogwarts calmed and the doorway of the Great Hall was filled by violet flames. The golden woman faded into nothingness and the two passed through the flames. They too faded into nothingness and the flames died with their disappearance.

They were stood at a small cottage in a large clearing in a forest, the words 'The Hearth' were carved into the doorway above the door arch. A gravel path meandered into the darkness of the trees. Their armour faded away and they entered the cottage. The one who had been marked by a dragon's nest was a woman, the other a man. The man put his hand to the woman's and she saw that the man had seen into the thoughts of the bearded man. The boy that Cassiopeia had asked that they raise was currently in a basket outside number four Privet Drive, his brother had defeated a powerful wizard, it would seem and the bearded man had directed that the family separate the younger twin from them so that he would not divert their attention from the son who had defeated the wizard.

The man went down the hallway and put a hand to the wall at the end. The hallway became longer and a room appeared to one side, a cot rested within. The woman took the cot into another room with a large bed in it. The house continued to be remodelled that night to be prepared for a wizard child and a garden was created behind the cottage to provide food for the child when he needed it.

* * *

Albus Dumbledore looked out from his window. The wards around Hogwarts Castle were in perfect condition yet the man and woman had appeared to disapperate from within the wards. For the first time in many years Albus had a new puzzle to play with. He knew he would enjoy playing.


	2. A Normal Family

Disclaimer: In chapter 1, contains extracts of The Philosopher's Stone by J. K. Rowling

AN: please review

The Dursleys were a very normal family, they had a normal house in a normal neighbourhood of normal people. Vernon Dursley left for work, he was a director at a firm that made drills called Grunnings. When he reached the end of the street he saw something rather odd, a cat reading a map. When he glanced back at it there wasn't a map in sight, he quickly put the cat out of his mind and focused on the delivery of drills that was to arrive later that day. When he reached the edge of town his mind was directed away from drills.

Many people were wandering around in cloaks. He was so very irritated, the clothes young people wore these days was absolutely stupid. His sight fell on a huddle of these weirdos and he became outraged, some of them weren't young, an old man in a green cloak was stood amongst the others. Then he realised that they must have been collecting for some charity, yes that must have been it. He parked in the Grunnings parking lot with drills back on his mind.

Mr Dursley always sat in his office on the ninth floor with his back to the window and so, didn't see the flocks of owls flying past. He had a rather normal and productive day, he shouted at five people, made several important phone calls and shouted some more. He was in a good mood at lunchtime and chose to eat a bun from the bakery across the street. As he crossed the street he saw a group of those people wearing cloaks, there wasn't a single collection tin in sight. He glared at them as he bought an extra-large doughnut. When he left the bakery he heard them whispering.

"The Potters, that's what I've heard too."

"Yeah it was the son, Edward."

Vernon Dursley stopped in his tracks. He was about to say something before he reconsidered and dashed to his office. He had almost called home when he put down the receiver. Potter wasn't so uncommon a name and as for the boy, he wasn't sure either of the brats were called Edward, he'd never met his nephews. No, it would be foolish to tell Petunia, she always got angry and upset when her sister was mentioned. He found it difficult to focus on drills after that.

When he left work for home, he was so disturbed by the day that he barrelled into a tiny man in a violet cloak. "Sorry" he grunted.

A high pitched squeaky sort of voice replied. "Don't be sorry sir, nothing could upset me today! Rejoice for You-Know-Who is gone! Even muggles such as yourself should be celebrating." The little man hugged him around the middle and walked off. Mr Dursley ran for his car and rushed home. He became even more disconcerted when the tabby cat from earlier was sat on his wall. His best attempts to shoo the cat weren't enough and he entered the house in a slightly fevered state.

Petunia had had a nice, normal day. She told him about her day over dinner. When she had put their son, Dudley Daniel Dursley, to bed and was back downstairs with Mr Dursley he cleared his throat nervously. He tentatively started a new conversation. "Have you heard from your sister recently?"

He stammered when Petunia's angry gaze turned upon him. "No. Why?" She spoke sharply.

"Funny stuff on the news," he mumbled. "Owls… shooting stars… and lots of funny-looking people in town…"

"So?" she snapped.

"Well I just thought… maybe… it was something to do with… you know… her crowd."

Petunia Dursley sipped on her tea with pursed lips. Mr Dursley wondered whether he dared tell her that he'd heard the name 'Potter' earlier that day. Another glance at her still fury-filled face disabused him of the notion that it could ever be a good idea. Instead he said as casually as he could, "Their sons, they'd be about Dudley's age now, wouldn't they?"

"I suppose so." Petunia said. She was still tensed.

"What are they called again? Ethbert and Howard, isn't it?

"Edward and Harry. Nasty common Saxon names, if you ask me."

Vernon's heart sank horribly. "Oh yes, I quite agree." The pair eventually climbed into their bed, after Vernon had checked that the tabby was still on the wall, which it was. While Vernon Dursley drifted to sleep, the cat on the wall stood as a silent sentinel showing no signs of weariness or tiredness.

A man appeared at the end of the street, so suddenly it would have seemed to be magic. Nothing like this man had been seen on this street, however that was not to say, of course, that nothing like this man had been to this street. He was tall, thin and very old. He wore long robes and a purple cloak. His name was Albus Dumbledore. He held up a small silver object and suddenly, one by one, the lights went out and the street was cast into night.

He came to the cat and sat beside it on the wall. "Fancy seeing you here, Professor McGonagall."

He turned to smile at the cat, but it had gone. He was now smiling at a rather severe-looking woman with square glasses. She too wore a cloak, an emerald one. "How did you know it was me?" she asked.

"My dear, I've never seen a cat sit so stiffly."

The pair continued to converse in the dark softly, no one else on the street, even if they had been awake could have heard or seen them. Eventually the conversation drifted towards a matter that Professor McGonagall seemed to have been wondering about. "A fine thing it would be if, on the very day You-Know-Who seems to have disappeared at last, the Muggles found out about us all. I suppose he really has gone, Dumbledore?"

"It certainly seems so." said Dumbledore.

"The owls are nothing next to the rumours that are flying around. You know what they're saying? About why he's disappeared? About what finally stopped him?" It would seem the Professor had reached the point she was most anxious to discuss. Dumbledore did not answer. "What they're saying is that last night Voldemort turned up in Godric's Hollow. He went after the Potters. They say Lily and James were asleep and that he went for the twins first. That it was the boy, the older twin." Dumbledore nodded his head.

Dumbledore pulled out a little golden watch. It had twelve hands and little planets around the edge that were moving slightly and swapping places every so often. It must have made some sense to Dumbledore though because he returned it to his pocket and said, "Hagrid's late. I suppose it was he who told you I'd be here?"

The Professor nodded. "And why are you here?"

"I'm bringing Harry here, he'll be safe here with family and he won't distract his family from their main priority, Edward will need to be looked after and protected and that shouldn't have to suffer just for his brother." McGonagall was about to complain, her horror was evident on her face, as was the bliss and peace that followed shortly after, she hadn't seen the white wand made of elder hidden up Dumbledore's sleeve.

"Yes that will be best for them both." She nodded in agreement. A low rumbling broke the silence around them. It grew louder until it swelled to a roar. A huge motorcycle fell from the sky with an equally huge man astride it.

"Hagrid," said Dumbledore sounding relieved. "No problems?"

"No sir, Lily and James were all sure, they wan' lil' Edward given the best chance, you know, can't have Harry here be bad for them all can we?"

Dumbledore peered into the basket. A bundle of blankets covered a baby boy. He had raven-black hair, competing with the night for its perfect shade of darkness. Under a tuft of his hair, on his forehead, they could see a cut which looked much like a bolt of lightning. Dumbledore wondered if this could be the mark, but he quickly ignored the idea, Tom had cut the Dark Mark into the arm of Edward, which was definitely purposeful, this cut must have been from the exploding cot.

The two professors disappeared suddenly and Hagrid took to the night air on his huge flying motorbike. Quarter of an hour later Albus Dumbledore was astounded by the appearance of a young woman made entirely of golden light.


	3. Into Shadow

Disclaimer: In chapter 1

AN: please review.

Petunia Dursley took her milk bottles out early in the morning. She found on her doorstep a basket, which carried within it a small child with raven-black hair and emerald green eyes. An unusual scar rested on his forehead. A letter rested beside the child, in the basket. She knew who the child's parents were of course but the cursive writing on the letter was not her sister's nor her sister's husband. The letter told her that this was the younger twin, Harry, and that she was to care for the boy, in exchange they would be protected from any harm from the magical community and given £200 each month.

She looked down to see that the child had awoken. He reached up for her and, when she did not pick him up, began to cry. She hastily grabbed the basket and rushed him inside, her milk bottles not arranged as neatly as they usually were. It would have been a disaster if he had woken the neighbours and they had seen her.

Vernon came downstairs, he was searching the kitchen for breakfast. He saw Petunia sat at the table with the basket on top of it. She held the child in her arms and had sufficiently calmed it that they didn't have to worry about the neighbours. The letter told them that the story they were to use for Harry's staying with them was that the rest of his family were dead in a car accident, although the letter assured otherwise. Vernon felt the child would make a suitable brother for Dudley. His wife's glare at the remark showed her opinion clearly.

They eventually came to a compromise, the boy would do all the chores and would earn his keep, he wouldn't take up extra space and he most certainly wouldn't be a member of the family, he was not Dudley's brother but rather Dudley's servant. They put the boy's basket in the cupboard under the stairs and put the boy in the basket. After they locked the cupboard they got Dudley dressed and fed, he had to go shopping for some new clothes, his old ones were stained and the stains wouldn't come out.

When the family returned they could hear the boy bawling from in the cupboard. Petunia's lips pursed and Dudley started to complain. Vernon now knew that the boy would surely be a troublemaker. He stormed to the cupboard and opened it. He picked up the boy and shouted at it. After a while, the boy's crying had become silent as its tears poured down its face. Vernon put the boy back into the basket and relocked the door.

* * *

By nightfall he had fallen into a fitful sleep. Petunia and Vernon spoke about their nephew in hushed tones, their son sleeping in a cot beside them with the only sound to disturb their talk being the slight hum of the new electrical fireplace.

At the end of the street appeared a man and a woman. A black armour made of thousands of tiny black scales covered their bodies from head to toe. Their faces couldn't be seen under the armour. The woman stepped into the light of a streetlamp. Her hand rose and the shadows around the light began to swirl and tighten. When her hand fell, the streetlamp no longer shone, nor did any other lights on the entire street. Satisfied that they could proceed unseen, yet not unseeing, they did so. Number four Privet Drive stood before them.

They could feel the wards around the building, shimmering and crimson the wards appeared before them, a dome of light over the whole building and its grounds, only appearing for a moment. The man came to the white polished door of the house, he raised his hand and knocked once, twice, thrice. He waited. Vernon Dursley opened the door. His eyes widened in horror at the figures before him, their faces were grotesque, painted on in the likeness of a dead corpse while their bodies were covered in scales. He took a step back. The two entered the house.

They took the first door on the left and sat in the living room on the floor in front of the electrical fire, which continued to hum steadily. Vernon Dursley and his wife were shouting at them to leave the house, Mrs Dursley was waving a letter at them. The man spoke first. "Could you tell me where Harry Potter is?"

Both Mr and Mrs Dursley were thrust into silence. Although they had assumed that this would be the reason for the visit they had not expected to hear such a level of spite in the word 'Potter'. It was a level of spite that only they, the most stubborn and practised Potter haters, had ever reached and usually only when they had been surprised by the mention of Petunia's relatives.

"Why?" came Mr Dursley's response.

"So that we might invite him into our own home." came the woman's answer.

Mr and Mrs Dursley were unimaginative people. Despite their knowledge of the existence of magic they were simply incapable of recognising the possibilities that having a young wizard in the household would bring. Their answer was immediate and not altogether unexpected. It consisted of no words and merely pointing. The man and the woman stood. They opened the cupboard under the stairs and took the basket from its place. A boy was in the basket. A boy with raven hair and emerald eyes. His eyes opened as the basket was passed from the man to the woman.

Man, woman, child and basket disappeared in silence with no indication that they had even been there. They simply all faded into nothingness and shadows claimed the cupboard beneath the stairs. The stars stopped shining for a moment before pouring their light onto the town again.

* * *

It was the next morning that Albus Dumbledore stood on the edge of the boundaries of number 4 Privet Drive. The wards were in perfect condition yet the man and woman had entered the wards taken Harry and disappeared. Alas it was of no matter the boy was unimportant, and not nearly as magically powerful as his brother. Albus Dumbledore returned to Hogwarts. His puzzle was becoming more complex but Albus enjoyed complex puzzles. Especially when the outcome of the puzzle could never harm his carefully set plans whether he completed it or not.


	4. The Wings of Hunters

Disclaimer: It's in chapter one

AN: please do review.

The man and the woman took Harry in. They taught him that they were called Carrog and Cysged. They lived in a small cottage in a forest that he had yet to find the edge of, although he hadn't ever travelled very far before. The cottage was made of logs and it rested in a small clearing with a garden of fruits and vegetables and berries behind it and a gravel path which wandered into the dark depths of the forest.

Harry, who was now two years old, had developed rather quickly, he was a bright child and a competent gardener, when Carrog or Cysged helped him at least. His own part of the garden was comprised of mostly flowers. The majority of the flowers were red, he'd taken to the colour and many of his toys were now red. The rest of the flowers were blue. He also had a bed of strawberry plants as they were his favourite food. Unfortunately Carrog and Cysged both worked in a place far away from their home. Sometimes one of them would be gone for the day to work while the other stayed with Harry.

One such time Harry, who was now called Taranau so that he would be better hidden, had been gardening with Cysged for a whole morning while Carrog was at work. After gardening Taranau had been tired and they had decided to nap, out in the garden. Taranau rested in Cysged's arms as she closed her eyes and let time pass around her.

Later that afternoon Cysged had opened her eyes to find that Taranau was no longer resting in her arms, how long had passed, when had he woken, how could she not have noticed? She searched the cottage and the garden for him. He was nowhere to be found. She called for him and rushed into the forest to find him.

After a short while she came across a centaur who was patrolling the borders of the herd's territory. Carrog and Cysged had befriended many of the magical races a long time ago, the centaurs among them. The herd that shared the forest with them were widely regarded, by the centaur people as a whole, to be the most precise in regards to divination.

"Greetings Grandmother!" He called as he saw her. "What brings you from your Hearth today?" He bent his front legs when he came closer and bowed his head. When he rose again he caught sight of her face and the distress on it. He noticed the winds whipping through the forest and the leaves rushing with them. The branches above trembled. "Grandmother? Has something happened? Is Grandfather harmed?"

Her head shook from side to side. The wild look in her eyes frightened him. Not all the centaurs in the forest together could stop a vengeful Grandparent of the Forest, he hoped Grandfather had not been hurt. "I've lost my foal." She whispered into the wind, he could barely hear over the quickly rising wind. "He wandered into the forest while I rested and now I cannot find him. Oh my little Taranau."

Then suddenly the winds died. A giggle could be heard in the distance, only softly but Cysged could hear it clearly. She shot off to her left, outpacing the centaur as she ran, the very shadows of the forest carrying her ever faster until she saw him. She calmed then, slowed to a walk and lost the wild look in her eyes, her child was safe now.

He was sat on a fallen tree with a young peregrine falcon sat beside him. It had beautiful grey and black feathers which were perfectly shaped, its oval wings were well defined and its talons and beak were in perfect condition. His fingers ran through the feathers and he giggled again. Cysged stepped out from the trees around her towards him and he saw her. He pulled his hand away from the falcon and his face clearly showed his guilt especially when he saw how worried Cysged had been. The falcon hopped closer until it eventually flew up to Taranau's shoulder, Cysged noted that it was a young falcon, it couldn't have been older than Taranau.

"Does she know where our home is?" Cysged asked, Taranau nodded. She stepped forward and whistled. A gentle wind blew around Taranau, making it easier for the young falcon to get above the trees. The falcon took to the wind. "Go to the Hearth little one, I shall bring my chick there shortly." The falcon rode the wind upwards and disappeared above the trees. Taranau squirmed slightly on the fallen tree as Cysged turned to look at him.

"Sorry." Taranau whispered. Cysged sat down beside him, picked him up and settled him into her lap.

"You know not to go into the forest alone."

"I was with Eires." He pouted.

"And Eires is just a young falcon, she isn't old enough to look after you all by herself." Taranau pressed himself into Cysged.

"I'm sorry." He whispered. Cysged wrapped her arms around him and stood up. "It's ok Taranau, I was very worried that's all. Let's get back and see Eires, ok?" She walked in the direction of the Hearth, carrying Taranau in her arms. The centaur from before had evidently called to some others as she soon came across him and five others who escorted them through the forest, even beyond the herd's territory.

"I see that you've found your foal." The centaur from before said. Cysged nodded and ran a hand down his hazel mane. They walked with her until the treeline around the Hearth, then they turned about and rode for their herd. Cysged walked into the cottage, still holding Taranau, and sat on a chair beside the back door. Eires glided into the room through the open door and perched on the back of another chair. Taranau shifted around in Cysged's arms to grin at Eires.

Cysged merely rolled her eyes, she was glad that Taranau had made a friend already, she and Carrog had been worried that being isolated from humans might mean that Taranau didn't make friends as easily. She put Taranau down. "You better behave Taranau, I'm going to tell Carrog about you going into the forest by yourself. Eires can only stay if you promise to make sure that you look after her, Carrog and I look after Alexander and Auradain." Taranau nodded fiercely, one hand stroking Eires who was now perched on his shoulder.

After bribing Cysged with a torrent of hugs and kisses, Taranau had a perch for Eires on the wall of his bedroom and a bowl for her to eat and drink from, it had separate parts for water and food, although Cysged said that Eires would need to hunt for food herself to keep strong and healthy. He was sat on his bed chattering with Eires when he heard a whoosh from the entrance hall. He poked his head out of the door to see Carrog and Alexander there in the hallway. Cysged gave Carrog a kiss and a tight hug before pulling him into the living room. Taranau knelt outside the door and listened to Cysged recount her story to Carrog. When she was done Carrog opened the door and picked up Taranau before carrying him to Taranau's bed.

They sat there in silence. Taranau fidgeted and squirmed in the silence until Eires perched on his shoulder and rubbed her head against his. Carrog smiled and went to the door. "It'll be time for dinner now, come along." Taranau put out his arm and Eires hopped down onto it. Throughout dinner he fed Eires small pieces of meat and Eires was perched on his chair beside his head. After dinner Carrog led them back to Taranau's room. Eires went to roost on his new perch and Carrog tucked Taranau into bed. When the owls were flocking the skies and the clock on Taranau's shelf read midnight, even if Taranau could not tell the time, Carrog spoke to the sleeping boy.

"Happy birthday Taranau." Carrog leant over and kissed his forehead. "Happy birthday my boy."

* * *

Albus Dumbledore had been invited to Edward Potter's third birthday party and, when he arrived, he found the boy to already have unwrapped many presents leaving the wrapping paper everywhere. The Weasleys were there as he had expected, indeed he'd asked for them to be there, he had intended for their youngest son to be Edward's friend and to help him control Edward, his friends would be an easy way to influence the boy after all. Albus moved closer to Edward Potter, who was becoming a rather unpleasant child (despite what James, Lily and the wizarding public thought), and extended his hand, within it was a toy broomstick. If Edward was like his father he would enjoy flying and would definitely remember that it was he, Uncle Albus, who gave Edward his first broom.

"Happy birthday my boy."


	5. Cold-Blooded Killer

Disclaimer: In chapter one.

AN: Please review.

Soon Taranau was four. He joined Carrog and Cysged each morning as they ran alongside the wolf pack, whose territory bordered the lands of the Grandparents of the Forest. Eires, Alexander and Auradain flew overhead as they ran between trees. Taranau was barely faster than the youngest pups who ran with them but he was quickly becoming faster. Carrog and Cysged had decided that he was old enough to be taught magic with the children of the other peoples of the forest. The child of the Grandparents was welcome amongst all in the forest and even amongst many of the various magical races who lived beyond the forest's edge.

Although he had yet to use a wand and learn the magic of wizard-folk he was a quick learner and understood much of what he was being taught swiftly. The powerful magic that the forest bore and that wandered freely amongst the trees helped him to quickly become more advanced than most humans ever were at his age.

Hoda was a female centaur in the herd across the river from the Hearth and was renowned for being one of the most accurate diviners the world over, it was said that only Cysged could see more clearly. Hoda taught Taranau astrology, astronomy and divination along with the rest of the foals.

While Taranau's skill at divination appeared to be very limited with only minor events which would happen very soon having any sort of clarity, he was enthusiastic when it came to reading the skies and had already learnt many of the tales of the constellations. He was still unsure though whether Carrog and Cysged could have ever actually been there when powerful ancient creatures fled to the night sky, even though he felt they'd never lie to him. Hoda had told them all that the ancient creatures that had formed the constellations had lived many millennia ago and not even the oldest elves could remember those days.

One such tale had been the tale of the centaur prophet Sagittarius who had been taken into the night sky when he had made a prophecy that was well known amongst the magical people, it was called the Prophecy of the End of Days. It was shortly after he was taken into the night, for his own protection, that the wizards of Ancient Olympia built the Palace of the Olympians and presented fire to the muggles who lived in the land near the mountain. Taranau hadn't been told the prophecy yet as he and his classmates were too young, Hoda had told them that they would study the prophecy when they were much older.

At the Hearth, Carrog taught him how to protect himself from both magical and non-magical opponents. This included fighting hand to hand, they started with kick-boxing, and Carrog had said that when he was older he'd even learn how to use a sword. Carrog also taught him maths and Muggle science. In the afternoons Cysged would teach him to read and write and how to use magic in household tasks. It was Taranau's job to set the table and to clean the dishes after a meal, which wasn't a very difficult task since, other than on special occasions such as his birthday, he was usually the only one who ate and even then Carrog and Cysged usually only had some cake. Cysged also taught him how to speak the many languages of the forest, Carrog and Cysged felt that it was good manners to speak to someone in their own language.

By winter he was already skilful in many of the languages that were used in the forest and he began to attend lessons in the school in the Elven fortress of Sammuntia which were taught in Elvish. He would learn potioneering, at least the potions which Carrog and Cysged didn't teach him to make for healing purposes, rune magic and history. His portion of the garden was now bigger as he could handle tending more plants by himself and he now had herbs and important potions ingredients growing alongside the flowers and foods that he had become fond of when he first began gardening.

It was when Taranau was four that he learnt of Man-Wolves, they were strange creatures, different from the wolves that he knew because they weren't always wolves. The wolf pack that Taranau had met felt that Man-Wolves couldn't be trusted as they would be inclined to act in favour of men due to spending most of their time as men, they were also much more aggressive than pure-wolves, something that most pure-wolves felt reflected the fact that men had hunted wolf kind for millennia.

He already knew that Carrog and Cysged were well respected throughout the forest as the Grandparents and so was not surprised when they were invited to the moon council. He'd never found out why everyone in the forest was a friend of Carrog and Cysged, he knew that the elves and the centaurs would fight sometimes and in his lessons he'd found out that before the first moon council, over a hundred years ago, the wolves in the forest fought themselves so he was slightly confused as to why no one fought Carrog and Cysged, they didn't seem very scary to him. The lands of the Grandparents had been the same since the first trees broke the skin of the earth. He was told in a history class that although no-one knew the Grandparents' exact age it was said by the various peoples of the forest to be greater than the combined ages of all the trees in the forest.

Grand Master Halliem, who taught history in Sammuntia, had already spoken of how the forest was divided and which parts were ruled by which groups. He had said that the elves ruled from the Fortress of Sammuntia all the land that was on the west bank of the river and north of the peat bog that ran between two parts of the forest. The centaur herd ruled the part south of there. However the entire east bank wasn't truly ruled as each pack ruled itself. This resulted in a great deal of warring between the packs over trivial issues which only stopped when the Grandparents of the Forest designed the Moon Council.

The Moon Council met once every three years and three seasons within the lands that the Grandparents lived in although the Grandparents weren't truly members of the council. It was forbidden to spill wolf blood at Moon Council. At Moon Council all packs came together with each member in attendance and any issues a wolf had, be it with another wolf or otherwise, they could bring forward and every wolf could vote on the matter without fear of retribution even if they had voted against their own alpha. It was usually presided over by the Grandparents, who could not vote on matters, as they were considered impartial and trustworthy, they also had the ability to weave new laws into the ancient magic that had built the world and knew which laws simply could not be made due to other, more ancient laws that existed since before even the first wolf, but there had also been councils presided over by a respected alpha from the forest in their absence.

Taranau had never seen a Moon Council before as the last Moon Council had occurred before he had come to the forest. This Moon Council, however, he did live in the forest and he was determined to see the Moon Council meet despite the warnings of his Elven friends who had been forbidden by their parents to even go near the lands of the Grandparents during Moon Council.

The moon rose and a thousand, thousand wolves all howled together and Taranau climbed from his bed and dressed himself. He snuck into the garden and passed the treeline. He had watched Carrog and Cysged from his window after they'd put him to bed and so knew which way to go.

After some time Taranau came to the river bank, there was a large space devoid of trees and the river seemed to have shifted some distance from where it usually ran. He had never seen so many wolves; the pack he had met was only twenty strong. Dire Wolves, Grey Wolves, Great Wolves, Black Wolves and Timber Wolves, they numbered beyond what he could count. What Taranau did not know was that the wolves who were in attendance were not just the wolves of the forest, as it had been when the Moon Council first began, but now included wolves from as far afield as the Scottish Highlands and, if rumours were to be believed, some had even swam across from Normandy and Brittany for the meeting. Moon Council was not just for pure-wolves either, three packs of Man-Wolves had come to attend.

"All those in favour of Korol Vok's request that the pack of North Ivaring be denied the hunting grounds of the fallen pack of Loth due to the previously proven charge of murder." Carrog's voice rang around the clearing and nearly every wolf stood from its seated position. "By the Moon Council's vote the pack of North Ivaring must cease to use the Lothian hunting grounds until they have paid in full for the murders committed by them. As I say it, I mean it. As I mean it, I say it. So mote it be." The wolves all sat once more as a breeze rushed through the clearing, carrying a gentle touch of the forest's magic with it.

At first the wolves either did not notice the scent of man cub that was carried by the wind or did not care, but then one wolf who had black fur on his legs and a dark grey stripe down its back, the alpha of North Ivaring, leapt into the trees where Taranau had been crouched. Taranau darted towards Cysged while the wolf chased him. A series of stones spikes sprung from the earth and blocked the wolf's path while Taranau clung to Cysged. Taranau looked back at the wolf. It was clearly a Man-Wolf, he could see that its snout was elongated and slightly deformed. Carrog's hands were raised in front of him. The Man-Wolf growled and climbed through the spikes before standing in front of Cysged and Taranau.

"I won't let you harm my pup." Cysged spoke. Over half the wolves rose at her words, whether to strike should she spill wolf blood at Moon Council or to defend their Grandmother it could not be determined. The Man-Wolf made a sound like he was laughing. He stepped closer. Then closer again. A few stones by Cysged's feet became a sharp knife and rose into her grip. He took another step. A final step would have enclosed knife and hand in his jaw. His foul laughter turned into silence. He did not step.

Where once stood a wolf, there lay a man. He had died and already the grass was wrapping around him attempting to pull him into the bowels of the forest such that he might feed life. Carrog picked up the dead man. The Moon Council was in outrage. The body fell into the river. Fenrir Greyback had been slain at the Moon Council.

"No wolf blood was spilt today. He had a frozen heart. I have made his blood the same." Taranau was shaking in Cysged's arms, he looked at Carrog, and his face was a portrait of anger, now Taranau could understand why the peoples of the forest had never ever fought with the Grandparents before. Put your snouts to the wind or the grass if you have such little trust in me. There has been no wolf blood spilt this night." Carrog was practically growling with fury, his cub had been threatened.

The packs of pure-wolves did not dare put their noses to the wind. They would not be among those who questioned the honour of the Grandparents, they had been amongst those who had called them 'The Trustworthy' for longer than any wolf could remember. Some Man-Wolves came forward and settled themselves again when the scent of blood was not to be found.

Taranau was shaking terribly. His arms wrapped around his pseudo-mother and his head rested on her stomach. She picked him up and carried him home. Auradain sang a lullaby in her graceful phoenix song as they walked and, by the time they had reached the Hearth, Taranau had fallen into a restful sleep. For this night she placed him in the centre of the bed that she shared with Carrog and lay beside him in silent vigil. Shortly after moonset and the conclusion of the Moon Council, Carrog entered their room. He bent over her and kissed her gently before moving to the other side of the bed. He lay down and put his arm across his wife and the boy he considered his son. He joined her in her vigil with a soft whisper.

"I love you both."

* * *

Albus Dumbledore was disturbed. Remus had just returned from the Moon Council and, although he was bound by some Wolfish law to keep the activities of the Moon Council secret, he had disclosed that the front page article of this morning's Daily Prophet was most certainly related to an event that had happened the night before.

The Daily Prophet had announced that Fenrir Greyback had been found dead floating face down on the south coast of England. It was unknown how Greyback had been killed or who had killed but Albus still wondered. What had the wolves quarrelled over? What sort of wolf could kill without leaving marks? Albus had found another puzzle. This one, he was sure would be much more fruitful than the last. This time he'd find his answers.

Albus Dumbledore loved his puzzles.


	6. He Came, He Saw

Disclaimer: In chapter one.

AN: Please review.

Taranau was six when he first saw her. The human girl with hair of fire was curled up beside a stream that flowed into the river. She was crying quietly and Taranau felt a strange compulsion to find out what was wrong. Then Cysged's voice rang in his mind. Cysged had told him that he was never to talk to a human that he hadn't been introduced to by herself or Carrog for humans were crafty and dangerous creatures and very capable of harming him. Therefore Taranau stood watching her, feeling her sadness as if it were his own. It was a long while later that Taranau left the girl and went to Sammuntia for his lessons. Luckily Grand Master Halliem was only calling roll when he arrived.

Although Taranau knew that he wasn't supposed to, he went down to the stream every day in hope that he might see the beautiful girl again. As it happened, he saw her twice more that week. On Friday he was very nearly caught by the girl when he tripped over a tree root due to being distracted by his indecision. He was certain that he should help her but he didn't want to break Cysged's rules. The next week he rushed down to the stream again but he couldn't see the girl.

"Are you meant to be here?"

Cysged's voice dropped from the branches above him. He flinched as Cysged herself dropped from the tree beside him. "You should be at lessons with the herd. Why aren't you?" she asked. Taranau stumbled over his words and blushed furiously before turning towards where he knew the herd would be. Cysged put a hand to his shoulder and told him that they would talk later. Taranau walked deeper into the forest while thinking up excuses that he could use.

When he came to the Hearth he saw both Carrog and Cysged waiting for him. Eires flew out of Taranau's window and perched on his shoulder before rubbing their heads together. Taranau sighed and entered.

His excuses were all for naught, they already knew about the girl. "Tell me about her." Carrog spoke first. "Do you know her name? Does she know yours? Perhaps she has told you about her wooden burrow? Or maybe you've told her about the Hearth?"

"No! I haven't spoken to her once. I promise. She doesn't even know that I've been watching her." Carrog looked him in the eye. Taranau felt him enter his mind and opened up all of his memories of the girl. Carrog nodded.

"Good. There are humans who would hunt us, all of us. This is why you must be careful when you do talk with her. You have to control your tongue and your magic, she cannot be told everything, and our secrets must be kept hidden. Do you understand?"

"I can talk to her?" Taranau was excited by the prospect.

"Do you understand, Taranau?" The corners of Carrog's mouth turned up slightly, Cysged wasn't attempting to hide her smile.

"Yes. Thank you!" Taranau rushed to Carrog and gave him a hug before going over to Cysged and kissing her on the cheek. Taranau wondered all the way through dinner what the girl would be like. Perhaps she would be his first human friend. Then he began to worry, what if she didn't want to be his friend? Or if she was a mean person? Carrog and Cysged were usually worried about humans, maybe they were mean like orcs.

Carrog was concerned. He'd kept Taranau isolated from wizards and witches and even muggles to protect him, yet Taranau's enthusiasm for a potential human friend showed that it may not have been the best course of action for Taranau. If Taranau hadn't been kept separate from his own kind would he be happier? Carrog was unsure, despite the last five years of raising Taranau he was by no means an expert on the subject of child-raising.

The next morning, Taranau saw the girl again. He did not speak to her. He simply watched as he had for the last week. It was three weeks later that Taranau stopped simply watching the girl with hair of fire. She heard him sneeze. She shot up from the ground and he could see her chocolate eyes and even the small golden flecks that glittered from within them.

The she slipped backwards and into the small lake that this part of the stream formed. Her scream as she fell pulled Taranau forward out of the forest and to the stream. She was flailing wildly in the water and screaming. Taranau leapt into the water and swam out to her before wrapping his arms around her body and treading water with his feet to keep them afloat. When she felt his arms she stilled and stopped screaming. She looked up at this boy. He had raven-black hair and emerald-green eyes. He looked rather handsome. His grin was especially wide and, even in her now soaked clothes, she couldn't help but smile also. "Can't swim?" he laughed.

The girl blushed prettily and buried her head in his chest. He swam backwards to the shore and pulled her out from the water. "Hi, my name's Taranau. What's yours?" he asked.

"I'm Ginny." Even her voice was beautiful.

"Hello Ginny. How old are you?"

"I'm nearly six." She answered.

"I'm six too." Taranau was pleased by their common age despite being a day away from seven.

She looked closer at him. He didn't have a drop of water on him and his clothes were already dry. In fact even her clothes were dry on the front. His eyes, which at first she had thought were emeralds, appeared to actually harbour small flames dancing around within them and seemed deeper than simply emerald. Even his raven hair, which was all messy, looked different than it at first glance, now small speaks of blue lightning ran through it at random. His grin hadn't changed at all, even when he noticed that her hand still rested in his, though he did blush quite fiercely. Her hand felt nice.

"Thanks Taranau, for saving me."

"It's ok. Why were you crying?"

"It's just my brothers."

"Are they mean to you?" She glanced away and he knew that he had hit the nail on the head. He wrapped her in his arms again. She felt her back become dry and she was warm again. He sat down by the lake with her still in his arms pulling her with him causing her to sit in his lap. "They must be orcs." He told her sagely. She looked up at him in confusion. Then she leant her head on his shoulder and sighed. They sat in silence as the sun rose to its zenith and as it began to fall Ginny's stomach rumbled. Taranau's stomach answered hers. Ginny giggled and Eires appeared over the tops of the trees and perched on a rock on the lake shore not far from them. She called softly.

"Oh no"

"What?"

"Cysged is going to be so mad at me, I've skipped all of today's lessons. I've got to go Ginny. Can we meet here again tomorrow?"

"Of course we can Taranau." They stood together and hugged. Ginny kissed Taranau on the cheek. Then both Taranau and Eires disappeared into the trees. Ginny watched them fade away into the forest before turning to go to the Burrow.

"You're a very odd boy Taranau." She whispered.

* * *

Molly Weasley was worried. Ginny had not come back at lunch and it was important that Ginny be here so that she could be prepared for tomorrow. Edward had invited them all to Potter Manor for his seventh birthday party. Ron had become a good friend to him as Albus had asked but Ginny didn't seem to be becoming as attached to the boy as Albus had hoped. She would have to talk to Albus. Surely all girls her age were in love with the Boy-Who-Lived, weren't they?

"You're a very odd girl Ginny." She complained into the empty kitchen.


	7. Poisoned Hearts

Disclaimer: In chapter one.

AN: Please review.

Ginny awoke early the next morning. She hastily put on her clothes and put her fiery hair into a bobble. Once dressed she went downstairs and to the kitchen table. Her food was wolfed down at a speed that even Ron couldn't best. She was out of the door before her mother had a chance to remind her about Edward's birthday party in an hour's time.

* * *

Taranau woke early the next morning. He grinned as he'd get to see Ginny again today, he also grinned as he remembered when he returned to the Hearth the previous afternoon.

"And where have you been all day Taranau?" Cysged had called from the garden. "You missed all of your lessons today. Hoda came today and told me that you hadn't been at her divination lesson."

"I was by the lake." He'd replied.

"You shouldn't be skipping lessons to watch her you know."

"I wasn't watching her. She fell into the lake and then I jumped in and then I pulled her out and then we sat together."

"You pulled her out? Can she not swim?"

"No she can't. Could I teach her to swim?" Taranau had made his request before he even knew that he had wanted to teach her. A smile grew on his face. Yes, Ginny would want swimming lessons, he was sure of it. It had been easy to persuade Cysged to provide swimming costumes for both Taranau and Ginny and she had quickly forgotten the issue that had occurred with his lessons. Although Taranau did make sure that he'd remember to speak with all of his teachers on Monday to apologise.

This had led to his current position, holding onto a swimming costume for Ginny while shovelling food into his mouth at a furious rate. As he left the kitchen he heard Carrog call happy birthday after him. He waved his free hand in the air and called his thanks back.

It was shortly after this that he came to the lake to see Ginny waiting for him. She was bouncing from foot to foot and glancing into the trees in hope of spotting him. Her hair was tied up into a single ponytail with a brown bobble and ran like liquid fire down her back. He had never seen something more beautiful.

As he stepped out of the tree line she saw him and rushed up to hug him. "Hi Taranau. What's that?" She asked pointing at the fabric in his hands.

"Hi Ginny. It's a swimming costume. Cysged gave me it so that you could learn to swim. If you want to I mean, of course you don't have to. I just thought that you might like to." His free hand came up to rub the back of his neck. He wondered if he was right in thinking that she would want to learn to swim.

"Thanks Taranau." She had replied. She took the costume from him and held it up in front of herself. "Do you think it'll fit?"

"It looks like it was made just for you Ginny." He answered honestly. He wouldn't have been surprised to discover that Cysged had made it to fit Ginny exactly. Ginny realised that Taranau was already wearing his own swimming costume, which only consisted of some shorts. He was more muscled than her brothers, except for Charlie who wanted to be a dragon handler when he was older. She thought he must be rather strong. She saw he was going slightly red under her gaze and felt blood rush to her own face.

"Ginevra! Ginevra! Where are you?" Her mum was calling for her. It sounded like she was getting closer. Taranau looked disappointed. He slipped into the water and disappeared from sight behind the rocks. Ginny sighed.

"I'm over here Mum!" She called.

"Ginevra, you shouldn't have run off like that, you knew we were going to Edward's birthday party today. We need to be there in half an hour. You better hurry up and get back to the house." And with that Ginny's mother hustled away again not once noticing the swimming costume in Ginny's left hand or the boy hiding behind the rocks.

Taranau climbed from the lake and stood slightly behind Ginny. She turned around to face him.

"I'm sorry Taranau. I forgot about the birthday party. Could you look after my swimming costume for me? I'm really sorry, I'd have told you if I'd have remembered. Please don't be mad at me."

"I'm not mad at you Ginny, it's ok, you just forgot that's all. Of course I'll look after your swimming costume. I'll bring it tomorrow?"

"Yes please. I'll be here tomorrow. I promise."

"Who's Edward?" Taranau asked.

"Edward Potter. Haven't you heard of him? He's quite famous." She had replied.

"Oh, him. Goodbye Ginny I hope you have fun." He had already heard about the Potters, Carrog had let Taranau peruse his memories of everything he knew about them and why he wasn't living with them, something he had devoted several hours to doing. Taranau started to walk backwards into the forest. "When's your birthday Ginny?" He called at her.

"11th of August. When's yours?" She called back.

"Today!"

"Happy birthday Taranau. I'll make it up to you tomorrow." Taranau nodded, waved and took a final step before fading away into the forest. Ginny turned about where she stood and walked up to the Burrow. As she entered her mother immediately started talking.

"We've added your name to the card and present for you dear. You haven't got a lot of time to get changed and make yourself look a bit better so hurry."

Ginny seethed inside. She was fine as she was. She still went up to her room however. After staying there for five minutes she came back down. Her mother still complained that Ginny never really looked quite perfect and that perhaps the clothes she was wearing earlier looked better but Ginny ignored both her comments and the stories that Ron was regaling her brothers with. It seemed that Ron had been allowed to fly with Edward on the brand new Cleansweeps that the Potters had bought.

Shortly afterwards they all flooed to Potter Manor. Edward called Ron and the twins outside to play quidditch while Percy went to talk with Mrs Potter about the ancient runes class that he wanted to take in two years' time and that she taught. Her mother and father went outside with Mr Potter to watch the boys and she was alone. Alone that is except for Albus Dumbledore who was sat by the coffee table.

"Good morning Miss Weasley. Would you like something to drink?"

"Good morning Headmaster. Could I have some pumpkin juice please?" Ginny asked. Dumbledore poured a glass of pumpkin juice which Ginny drained nearly immediately. She suddenly felt an urge to go watch Edward play quidditch. So she did. She got up and walked out of the room and watched Edward through a window. She didn't see Albus Dumbledore's smirk or notice when he flooed back to Hogwarts.

Then suddenly she shook her head. The desire to watch Edward disappeared and she had no idea where it had come from. Edward was terrible at quidditch. She left the window and went to the Potters' library and sat down to read. She wanted to know how to make Taranau a special present for his birthday. Even if it was a day late and involved her stealing her mother's wand, again.

She settled into the book she had found. Yes, Taranau would definitely like this.


	8. The Price of Secrets

Disclaimer: In chapter one.

AN: Please review.

The first snows of winter had struck the forest. Already howls were ringing up and down the river as more and more wolves poured into the forest. Oblivious to the quickly approaching Moon Council, Ginny was flying through the night beside Taranau. After he had taught her the basics of swimming, which she had become highly proficient in quickly, she had taught him to fly a broomstick. He was a natural, just as she had been when she had first discovered the joys of flying. She loved to watch as he flew and he had been caught staring with wonder in his eyes as she flew around him on many occasions. It wasn't rare for Eires to join their night flights but tonight she had not joined them.

The moon was descending and the dawn was fast approaching when they finally touched down again. "I'll see you again tomorrow after lunch, yeah?" Ginny asked.

Taranau had not responded immediately, so she turned to face him. "Sorry Ginny but we shouldn't fly tomorrow night. It would be a very bad idea."

He seemed to be very serious. "Why not?"

"I can't tell you."

"Can't?" She asked with disbelief.

"It isn't my secret to tell, Ginny. I can't tell anyone. I'd tell you if I could, but I have to keep other people's secrets. If I didn't, how could you trust me yourself?" Ginny accepted this reasoning with a short nod.

"Sorry." She had replied simply for she felt guilty, having questioned him as she had. Taranau just tucked her into his arms, he breathed deeply and inhaled the delicious scent of Ginny before nuzzling her neck with his head. "Taranau!" She giggled, with just the right tone to tell him that she didn't actually mind.

When they eventually released one another their faces were slightly flushed and they looked into each other's eyes, Ginny watching the flames dancing in his, Taranau watching the golden stars glittering within hers. He leant forward and kissed the tip of her nose before finally stepping back. He was sure that her broad smile was reflected upon his own face. "Goodnight Ginny."

"Goodnight Taranau."

With those words she had stepped backwards and turned, all the while smiling, and wandered back up to the Burrow and to her soft and warm bed.

It was the next morning when her fears that Taranau might not truly trust her resurfaced. She went down to their lake after lunch and sat waiting for him. She was about to give up hope that he would come to be with her, even during the afternoon, when he appeared at the treeline.

She stood and waited causing him to have walk to her. He quickly noticed that there was something that was upsetting Ginny. Taranau was about to take her into his arms when her hand came to his chest. It rested just above his heart. Ginny whispered, barely loud enough for Taranau to hear, "Trust." And Taranau knew immediately what had upset her so much. Even after having explained his reasons to her last night, she still believed that he didn't trust her.

He put his hand to her own heart. "I trust you. With all of my heart. I swear." A solitary tear dripped from her eye and her arm fell. Taranau rushed forward to hold her.

"Sorry, Taranau. I am sorry. I should have known that. I should have trusted you." More tears followed the first. He didn't reply. He continued to hold her as he kissed along her neck and pulled her down into his lap.

They soon lost track of time and curled up in each other's arms with Ginny's head upon his shoulder and fell asleep together. They woke with the moon. The howling of a hundred thousand wolves caused them to stir and Ginny to grip Taranau tightly. Unable to pry Ginny's tight grip from him, he rose gently and carried her to the boundaries of the Burrow and slowly rested her upon her own feet. She was shivering in his arms.

Taranau remembered her earlier fears and decided that he would put them to rest forever. He knew that both Cysged and Carrog would be furious when they discovered what he wanted to do next. "Ginny, I want to tell you a secret."

"You don't have to do that Taranau."

"I know, but I want to. Ginny, Taranau isn't my real name. Or at least it isn't my birth name, it is my real name because my true family use it. Any way the name I was born with, the name my first mother called me was…"

"You don't have to do this Taranau." She had whispered, interrupting him. And then he had whispered back. She gasped before she giggled. Harry Potter had started kissing the tip of her nose.

* * *

A ripple of magic ran through the forest. It carried a soft breeze with it and Carrog and Cysged knew what it meant. Someone had discovered Taranau's true identity. The magic that they had used to hide him collapsed and for the first time in many years a name appeared on a list in the Department of Mysteries as they had come into close contact with one of the 'Law Writers' as the Unspeakables had chosen to name them. It was embellished in gold and written in a cursive script. For the first time in over six years the name Harry Potter had found its way into the wizarding world.

* * *

Albus Dumbledore was waiting in his office. The Moon Council would be tonight and he didn't want to miss any information that Remus could provide him about the decisions and activities of the evening. He looked out of the window. Where were these moon council meetings? How far was he from the largest group of wolves in existence, a group who for one single night every three years and three seasons acted as a single great pack? For all he knew they were meeting in the Forbidden Forest right at that moment beneath his gaze and he simply wasn't seeing them.

The last moon council had been very interesting, one of Albus's enemies had been killed. Perhaps this time more good news would be coming. And if not, well, then he could push Remus to act as his personal envoy to the Moon Council. Surely even these savage beasts had respect for the Great Albus Dumbledore.

Alas at the moment it was just a matter of having to wait for moonset.


	9. For the Greater Good

Disclaimer: In chapter one

AN: Please Review.

It was the day before Taranau's eleventh birthday that he received his armour. Carrog had spent a week forging it himself. The small octagonal plate bore Taranau's emblem, a stag made of flames, earned when he beat an alpha stag in a race through the forest, the image of the stag was near identical to the stag who Taranau had raced. Cysged placed the plate onto Taranau's bare chest and it disappeared from sight.

Then, suddenly, Taranau was covered in black armour made of thousands of tiny black scales from head to toe. His face couldn't be seen under the armour. The stag made of flames was stood rearing and kicking out its front legs on his chest. It had no gaps to see through, however, unlike Carrog's and Cysged's armour, the scales on the face shifted rapidly opening very small air holes that changed position in the mask of scales. A face had been painted on. It had cold dark green eyes and thin purple lips.

Cysged and Carrog had spent the whole day hiding any evidence that the occupants of the Hearth knew of magic and Alexander and Auradain had gone among the peoples of the forest and asked that they avoid the lands of the Grandparents the next day. The next day would be the day that a professor came from Hogwarts, should their plans go as intended, and explain to them the existence of magic and invite Taranau to Hogwarts. They knew Taranau was excited by the prospect of attending a school for humans, the professor tomorrow would be only the second human he had met.

After having received his armour Taranau ran down to the lake to be with Ginny. As soon as he saw her his smile grew across his face. She had grown to be even more beautiful over the last three years. She stepped forwards and he took her into his arms.

"Good morning my love." He spoke into her hair.

"Good morning to you as well Taranau." She spoke back. They were soon in the water and playing games with one another while talking about everything that had happened while they were apart, even if it had only been a few hours. Eventually as the sun began to fall and after the two children were curled up in one another's arms on the grass Taranau reminded her that tomorrow she wouldn't see him as he'd have to meet the professor. She had known this would be happening so simply snuggled closer into his body.

The moon had risen by the time they parted, both wishing that they might have more time together and both knowing that they would just have to wait. With one last kiss Taranau turned for home.

* * *

Minerva McGonagall was looking at all of the letters that were to be sent to Muggle-born students. The other letters were already gone but she sent these ones later so that a professor could take them, after they all got back from their summer vacations of course, indeed she had been visiting a nephew in Scotland for the past few weeks. When she finished dividing them into piles for the various professors she selected one to do that day. A soft golden light glowed around the edges of one of the letters in her pile. When she turned to the letter the light had faded away. She picked up the letter and saw that it was Mr Taranau Lloyd, who lived in the Hearth near the village of Ottery St. Catchpole and had a birthday today, so she elected to visit him. An introduction to the magical world would be an excellent birthday gift after all.

As she left, she did not notice Albus Dumbledore take the letter that had the name of Miss Hermione Granger.

She reached the Winged Boar Gates of Hogwarts, turned on the spot and appeared on a gravel path in front of a rather large log cabin. She could see a well-tended and bountiful garden peeking around the edges of the house and the contrasting wild forest around her. Above the door the words 'The Hearth' were carved. She knocked on the door.

A man opened the door. He was slightly taller than her and much younger, she was surprised that he could have a child old enough to attend the school. He looked rather handsome as well. He had dark brown hair and light green eyes.

"Hello, I am Professor Minerva McGonagall from Hogwarts School. There is a place at our boarding school available for Mister Taranau Lloyd. Does he live here?" She asked the man.

"Yes, yes, Taranau lives here. Why don't you come inside?" The man replied.

The house had the air of a wealthy family and it looked like a wealthy family lived there, the furnishings were clearly of a high quality and various other pieces in the house looked rather expensive. Yet the occupants and indeed the house itself were quite modest and from the look of the garden they grew their own food. Minerva sat down in a maroon armchair in the living room opposite a woman with long black hair who she took to be Mr Lloyd's wife. Mr Lloyd and his son entered after her and sat beside the younger woman. She was much too young to possibly be the boy's mother, Minerva was sure.

"This letter here is our standard invitation letter so if you would like to read this first then I would be happy to answer any questions that you may have."

They all read the letter. "What sort of joke is this? A school of witchcraft and wizardry!" Mr Lloyd exclaimed.

"I assure you Mr Lloyd that it is not in a fact a joke but rather magic is indeed real. Perhaps you would like a demonstration?" Minerva replied. At their nods she continued. "I shall perform a very simple spell that we teach our students in their first year." She drew her wand. "Wingardium Leviosa!" A book rose from the table and hovered about two foot above it. She took Mrs Lloyd's wide eyed stare to be a look of disbelief, Minerva didn't see that the book was titled 'Potions for Trainee Healers' nor did she see Mrs Lloyd hit Mr Lloyd's arm as she lowered the book again. "As you can see, magic most certainly does exist."

"Can I really do magic?" Taranau asked her.

"Of course, if your name is on our list then you're definitely capable of magic."

"All this stuff that he needs, where do we get it?" Mrs Lloyd asked.

"There is a place that I can take you to where you will be able to purchase all of the items that he needs." Minerva replied.

"Is there a tuition fee for your school?" Mr Lloyd had asked.

"Only 50 Galleons per term, you need not worry, I'm sure."

"Galleons?"

"A single Galleon is about five Pounds Mr Lloyd, we have our own currency."

"Can I go to Hogwarts please? I really want to go." Mister Lloyd had asked of his parents, or perhaps adoptive parents, yes, Minerva felt that would explain their young age.

"Yes, Taranau, you can."

Minerva stood. "We should leave now or we won't return until late." She tapped her wand to a plate that she had brought with her and asked them all to hold on. When they did they suddenly found themselves in Diagon Alley. Taranau looked about in awe, despite going to Sammuntia often he had never been to anywhere that was built by humans and the architecture was very different. Where Sammuntia held arches and curved walls Diagon Alley had sharp features and simple wooden doors, evidently the shopkeepers felt that they needed to keep people from entering the stores with locked doors, it was rare to find a locked door in Sammuntia, or a door at all.

Minerva took them to Gringotts where they exchanged Pounds for Galleons despite the fact that Carrog and Cysged had an ancient and very full vault of gold hidden away in the deepest part of the bank, they had been founding members of the bank. It was almost one when after having bought everything else they came to Ollivander's wand shop.

"Hello there Mister …" He glanced at Carrog and Cysged then at Minerva. "… Lloyd. I've been waiting for you. A friend of mine," he glanced at Carrog again, "who just so happens to be an exceptionally skilled wand crafter, gave me a gift only yesterday. He said that the very first new first year to enter my shop today would be destined for the wand. And that just so happens to be you." Ollivander, who at the start of his speech was hanging upside down in front of them, was now opening a wand box I front of Taranau. "Which arm is your wand arm Mister Lloyd?"

"Er, well I write with my right." Ollivander raised an eyebrow at Carrog.

"Then that too shall be your wand arm. Take this wand please Mister Lloyd." And Taranau did. A shower of golden sparks flew from the end of it. A shrill scream came from the back of the store. Ollivander glanced at where the noise had come from and tsked. "I should have expected that," he mumbled, "This is a very unique wand Mister Lloyd. There is no wand like it since, it would seem, only the one wand crafter knows how to craft wands from metal. I do not know which metal the wand is crafted from nor do I know what core it holds, however, I do know that this is a very powerful wand. I also know that it will be eight Galleons thank you."

After Carrog paid for the wand Minerva took them all back home. "This is your ticket on the Hogwarts Express, I would advise that you go early so that you can learn how to access the train by watching the other students. Good evening to you all, I must be returning to Hogwarts now." Professor Minerva McGonagall apparated away into the night.

Taranau flew over the forest with Ginny and told her about everything that had happened that day. Ginny expressed her wish that she'd be going to Hogwarts with him and Taranau replied with a simple and sweet kiss, before diving down into the trees as fast as his broom could weave amongst them. Ginny dove down after him close on his tail.

* * *

Albus Dumbledore returned to his office thoroughly exhausted. It had taken some effort but Miss Granger was now a member of the inner circle of the Order of the Phoenix and could easily help in monitoring Edward Potter during his time as a student. Her parents had been an issue but a powerful confundus charm had altered their way of thinking enough that the problem had been easily resolved.

Alas the things people forced him to do for the Greater Good.


	10. Rails to Isolation

Disclaimer: In chapter one

AN: Please review

The first of September came and the sun rose. In its light there could be seen two children wrapped in one another's arms, just as they had been for the whole night. One had hair that looked like a halo of fire had formed about her head and her chocolate brown eyes, which had just opened, were filled by a terrible sadness. This was because the boy, whose arms she rested in, would be leaving for nine months and she wouldn't see him again until that time had passed.

She pushed her small hands through his messy hair, the blue lightning dancing onto her hand and up her arm, before she sighed and gently kissed him awake. His emerald eyes also held a deep sadness within them. He kissed her in return and, together, they stood.

"I'll miss you Taranau." Ginny whispered, still in his tight embrace.

"And I'll miss you too. Don't worry Ginny, Eires is coming with me and I'll write every day, I promise."

"I'll write back every day as well." She promised in return. "I love you."

"I love you too, Ginny." Taranau pledged.

They released each other and slowly stepped further apart until eventually Taranau had come to the first trees at the edge of the lake. Then Taranau turned and fled into the forest with his tears rolling down his cheeks. Ginny's own tears fell by her feet before she too ran for home.

* * *

Taranau's trunk was packed and Eires was already winging his way to Hogwarts (Professor McGonagall had told them that Eires was an acceptable replacement for an owl) and they were deciding on the best way to get to London. Taranau, despite mourning the time lost with Ginny was still looking forward to attending the school and perhaps making more human friends. They couldn't use magic to travel as they were supposed to be pretending to be Muggles and a Muggle-born, however they had no Muggle methods of travel available since Ottery St. Catchpole was such a small village that there was no train station and they had no car.

It was finally decided that they'd flame to a home that Cysged had lived in, in London, and then carry Taranau's trunk from there. When they eventually arrived at King's Cross Station there were only five minutes left until the train departed and Taranau was looking everywhere on the platform, which Carrog and Cysged had known how to access, for his girlfriend, unfortunately she was not be seen.

"Perhaps the Weasleys already left the platform after their boys got on board." Carrog said to Taranau, his hand resting on the boy's shoulder.

"Yeah, maybe." Taranau replied looking glum. He felt that if Ginny had been there to see him off he'd be much more excited by the prospect of meeting lots of wizards and witches. He carried his trunk onto the train, placed it into the first compartment that he could find and stuck his head out of a window with a smile sewn onto his features, he didn't want to upset his mother with his own melancholy. She knew he was upset anyway.

"It'll only be nine months, and you can write every day." She told him. "You'll both manage just fine. You'll get through it together." Just as she kissed his forehead, the train whistle blew and the train started to leave the station.

Two older students with red hair walked past. They looked completely identical, he was sure they were Ginny's twin brothers. They had helped her trick her mother into thinking Ginny had been sleeping when really she had been flying almost every night, they had caught her coming back from the lake. Although he also knew Ginny could get quite mad at them very quickly when they pranked her. He'd have to make sure he was careful with anything they gave him.

A girl with brown bushy hair walked up to the door, peered inside and then rushed on. It was a while later that a woman opened the door. "Anything off the trolley dear?"

"I'm sorry but I don't know what any of these are." Taranau replied.

"Ah, Muggle-born are we dearie?" he nodded and she continued. "We have Bertie Botts every flavour beans for two Sickles, those really do have every flavour so you'll have to be careful; and then chocolate frogs for eight," she chuckled when she saw his facial expression, "not real frogs dear but mind that they don't hop away when you open the packet, and we have some Honeyduke's finest although that's four Galleons."

Taranau bought a single bar of Honeyduke's finest and slowly ate it as he watched the countryside fly by. A blond boy, with two largish boys at his sides, threw open the door of the compartment. Taranau took an instant dislike to him.

"I've heard Edward Potter is on the train this year. Would you happen to know where he is?" The boy demanded.

"Nope." Taranau replied, popping the 'p'.

"Don't take that tone with me, I'm the scion of House Malfoy. Who are you?"

"Lloyd, my name is Taranau Lloyd."

"Never heard of you before, are you foreign or are you a mudblood?"

"Or perhaps I'm both." Taranau replied. The blond-haired scion of House Malfoy left the compartment in disgust, not noticing that Taranau had known what mudblood meant. It wasn't long before the train was pulling into Hogsmeade Station.

Taranau left the train without his trunk, having been told by an announcement on the train that it would be brought to the castle for him, and stepped out into the evening. There was a large man holding a large lantern and wearing a large moleskin coat calling out.

"Firs' years, firs' years come over 'ere!"

Taranau came to where the other first years were congregating. He could see the bushy haired girl from the train; a boy who he knew to be Ronald Weasley, Ginny's brother, who had been the one responsible for her crying by the lake all those years ago; the blond haired scion of House Malfoy; and his eyes pierced the side of one other person's head, although they weren't alone in doing so since many students were staring at Edward Potter's head. Taranau saw a crop of messy black, he saw diluted green eyes and gold rimmed glasses. He was glad that he wasn't Edward Potter.

They embarked in their boats, four in each except for the large man who had one to himself and Taranau who was sharing his boat with only a young toad, he was clearly already isolated from the other groups that had formed on the train and in the years before.

The large man lead them into the entrance hall of Hogwarts and Taranau felt a sense of peace and contentment wash over him. He almost didn't see the golden light that shimmered in front of him before it disappeared, because he had been so entranced by the relaxing magic that he'd just felt. It was similar to the magic that the forest exuded but at the same time didn't hold the elements of that magic which inspired fear.

Professor McGonagall came from the Great Hall and told them about the houses, it was very similar to a conversation that they had had at Madam Malkin's clothing shop, before giving him a slight smile and leading them all into the Great Hall.

The Sorting Hat sang his song and Professor McGonagall began to call for the first years to be sorted. The bushy haired girl, Hermione Granger, became a Gryffindor and then, soon after, the name that was being called was "Lloyd, Taranau."

Taranau sat on the stool while the Sorting Hat sat on his head. The hat was silent for almost a whole minute before it sighed. "Could you let me in please?" It whispered into his ear.

Taranau shook his head, Carrog and Cysged had told him not to let any strangers go inside his mind. "I'd like to be a Gryffindor please. Ginny wants to be a Gryffindor like her family or they might be mean to her and I want to stay with Ginny." He already knew that Cysged didn't mind that Taranau wasn't going to be in the same house as she had been in during her time at Hogwarts, Carrog had confided that he too felt Hufflepuff was a terrible house.

The Sorting Hat didn't speak. It continued to not speak for a long time.

"Gryffindor!" It eventually shouted into the Great Hall. Taranau's sorting had taken almost half an hour. Taranau went to sit at his table. The blond haired scion of House Malfoy, Draco Malfoy, became a Slytherin, Edward Potter became a Gryffindor and Ronald became a Gryffindor as well.

Albus Dumbledore stood and said a variety of uncommonly used words before the feast began. Taranau looked up at the High Table. He felt a slight discomfort in his scar and then a soft tickling sensation on his forehead, it would seem some people at the table were trying to look into his mind. He refused them access. His eyes then came to rest on the Ancient Runes Professor, his birth mother. She looked rather beautiful in his opinion. She was looking at Edward with pride. He turned to his food and was in a resolutely bad mood for the whole feast.

Ginny's twin brothers did attempt to cheer him up but in the end they settled for an easier, more fun conversation with two girls in their year. After the feast Dumbledore spoke again. He mentioned some sort of danger on the third floor and left it at that as all of the students were ushered into their dorms.

In the first year boys' dorm Edward had already decided on which bed he wanted and who deserved to have the right to sleep closest to the Boy-Who-Lived. Naturally Ronald was closest and, by chance, perhaps because he and Edward had never met before, Taranau found himself furthest from Edward, which also happened to be by the door. He took some parchment, ink and a quill to the common room and wrote. He wrote late into the night and then sent his letter with Eires southwards.

Taranau would never break a promise to Ginny.

* * *

Minerva, it would seem, was ecstatic that Mister Lloyd had been sorted into her house. Other than mentioning that she had introduced him to magic over the summer and was sure that he would be an excellent addition to her house she didn't explain why she was so happy and, despite never saying why someone who took half an hour just to be sorted was someone she wanted in her house, she had already succeeded in making Severus complain that the boy would be wasted in Gryffindor. Indeed Severus had even sworn to challenge the boy more to help him succeed.

Albus Dumbledore pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. He hadn't expected this boy to be such a central part of the staff meeting.

He had wanted Edward to be the key topic this year. He wanted Edward Potter to be desired, helped and coddled. How dare this Taranau Lloyd interfere in his plans, no matter how inadvertently!

Perhaps Mister Lloyd would need to be removed from the situation altogether. But how to do it?


	11. On Putting Stoppers In Death

Disclaimer: In chapter one.

AN: Please review.

The next morning Taranau was sat at the Gryffindor table when the owl post arrived. As he had sent Eires only last night, and rather late at that, he was surprised to hear her screech as she dived through the owls, nor did he expect all of the owls to rush away into the rafters, only flying back down when Eires was happily perched on his goblet. "Good morning Eires, did you have a good flight?" Eires leant forward and butted her head against his softly in reply. Taranau smiled and read his letter from Ginny. Her sheer joy at having received a letter so soon could be seen in the ink and, by the end of the letter, he was grinning happily.

He was quite unaware that everyone else had seen the falcon dive through all of the owls and come to rest in front of him so he jumped slightly when Hermione Granger's voice started to berate him. "… The letter said only owls, cats and toads, that isn't a toad… You've scared everyone else's owls… No respect for the rules whatsoever… Could be expelled for what you've done..." Taranau tuned her out and started to eat while she gave up and glared at him before storming away to sit further down the table.

"Mister Lloyd, here is your timetable, I must admit that when you asked me about a falcon I hadn't truly expected such a magnificent bird. She's quite beautiful. Don't worry, I've already informed the other professors that you have my permission to keep a falcon at the castle." Professor McGonagall then continued along the table, handing out the timetables to her students as she went.

Taranau had potions first, so, after finishing breakfast, he went up to his dorm and got all of his books for Monday and went down to the dungeons for potions. There was already a line of students, all except one of the students who had arrived early to this class were Slytherins and he joined the line. He saw the blond-haired scion of House Malfoy glare at him before turning towards Hermione Granger, he could not hear what was said but Hermione Granger became very red-faced. The bell rang and the door opened. The students all entered with a few running from the end of the corridor in order to be on time.

Taranau sat at a table close to the student supply cupboard so that he'd always have ingredients nearby if he needed to make a quick adjustment to save his potion from disaster, as Cysged had taught him. Or on the other hand he could, as Carrog had taught him, pour lots of flour into his potion to neutralise it. No one sat beside him. A pale man with sallow cheeks entered the room, his robes whipping about behind him, and the room fell into silence.

He began to speak, "You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potion-making, as there is little foolish wand-waving here, many of you will hardly believe this is magic. I don't expect you will really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses… I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, and even put a stopper in death." Silence continued to reign supreme after this speech.

"Potter!" Professor Snape called. "What would I get if I added powdered rot of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?" Taranau knew that the elves used asphodel leaves to brew a calming tea but that when he had tried the tea it put him to sleep and Cysged would use wormwood to make potions have more powerful effects.

Edward looked upon the potions professor with disgust. It was clear that he had already decided that the man was not worth his time, though Taranau was sure someone capable of being so dramatic could only have good advice. "Isn't that what you're meant to be teaching us?" Professor Snape's lips curled into a sneer.

"Evidently you didn't bother to even open your textbook before turning up to my lesson." He responded. Several other students suddenly had fearful looks upon their faces. "Let's try again. Where would you look if I told you to find me a bezoar?" Taranau had had to eat crushed bezoar when he'd angered a nest of adders by accident and it had stopped the poison in his foot.

"I'd go buy one, don't you know who I am?" He smirked at Ronald.

Professor Snape ignored his question and Hermione Granger's quivering hand in favour of a third question. "What is the difference, Potter," the name was spoken with a level of dislike that was clearly beyond his control, "between monkshood and wolfsbane?" Taranau was sure that they were the same thing, weren't they?

"I don't know." Came Edward's response. His tone carried anger now that it was apparent that the Slytherins were sniggering at him.

"Such a shame, it would seem that fame is clearly not everything. Mister Lloyd, I've been hearing interesting things about you. Tell me, what would I get if I added powdered rot of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"

Taranau was surprised, who had been telling the professor of interesting things and what interesting things were they? "Er… well it'd have to be some sort of powerful sleeping potion, with the right ingredient I suppose it could cause a coma or paralysis if used as a poison or maybe as a sedative for medical purposes. I don't know the names of any potion that would use them though."

The potions professor had a thoughtful look on his face. It was clear he felt that Taranau had a greater understanding of how potions worked than he had expected. "You don't need to know a potion's name to know how to brew it, or what it should be used for. This potion is called the Draught of Living Death." Hermione Granger and Edward were both glaring at Taranau. The professor paused before he repeated his second question.

"Bezoars are stones from a goat's stomach, the stones of a mountain goat are especially potent, and they're an antidote to most natural poisons."

"Indeed, and many artificial ones as well. And my final question?"

"Their spelling? I don't know of any other difference." Edward was smirking at him now.

"It is a shame Mister Lloyd." Professor Snape's face seemed to hold little in the way of disappointment despite his words, in fact it appeared as if he'd just become an excited young child. "It is a shame that you are not in my own house. Ten points to Gryffindor, Mister Lloyd. Five points from Gryffindor, Potter for your ineptitude." Edward had resumed his glaring while the Slytherins looked shocked.

The lesson continued with the students being asked to brew a simple boil curing potion. In the remaining three-quarters of an hour Taranau brewed a dozen perfect doses which, at the end of the lesson, Professor Snape took to the hospital wing to add to the potions stores there.

Taranau's charms class had happened in a similar fashion. Professor Flitwick, who was a tiny exuberant man, had given the class a test on the fundamentals of charms to see which students were at which levels of understanding already. He was shocked to see that Mister Lloyd had perfectly answered each question and that he hadn't simply copied the words of his textbook, as Miss Granger had done. It would appear that Mister Lloyd actually understood the workings of charms entirely. He was now rather jealous of Minerva for nabbing the boy into her own house. There wasn't enough time after the test for any practical learning and the students went to lunch.

During lunch Taranau saw that the professors at the High Table were talking quietly with Professors Snape and Flitwick while occasionally glancing at him. Professor Potter glowered down at him, Taranau looked away clamping down on the tears that threatened to fall. She was no longer his mother and she never would be again, of that he was certain, he didn't want to reclaim his old family, his new one was much better.

Taranau was composing part of a letter to Ginny and didn't notice the scion of House Malfoy behind him until the boy tried to grab the letter. In a flurry of movement and only a few seconds the foolish boy was pinned to a wall by his throat with one hand and both of his brawny bodyguards were slumped against the wall unconscious either side of him.

"Mister Lloyd, release him at once." Professor McGonagall's stern voice came from behind him. The scion of House Malfoy slid to the floor with fear written across his face. "Explain yourself!"

"I'm sorry professor, he tried to take the letter that I was writing and I just reacted. I am sorry."

"Be that as it may I'm afraid that I cannot allow fighting in this school. I shall have to take ten house points from Gryffindor, Mister Lloyd, and ten from Slytherin as well, Mister Malfoy."

"But he attacked me!" The blond haired boy cried out with injustice. He quickly quietened when Taranau turned to look at him.

"This is true Minerva." The potions professor had arrived. "Mister Lloyd you have detention with me after dinner for two hours, bring your potions equipment, you will need it." Snape commanded before leading Malfoy away and levitating Crabbe and Goyle to the hospital wing.

"I'm sorry Professor McGonagall." Taranau said, looking into the formidable witch's face.

"Don't worry Mister Lloyd, it can sometimes be difficult to control our anger when it is directed towards those we believe worthy of it." The transfiguration professor returned to the High Table and the Gryffindors looked upon Taranau with awe.

That evening, when Taranau finally made it to his dorm, after sending Eires south and brewing four doses of the blood replenishing potion, Taranau discovered that his trunk had been moved to a bed by the window. There were now two people between him and the door and only two between him and Edward. Taranau fell asleep in his new bed dreaming of the beautiful fiery girl who was waiting for him at home.

How could he wait until the summer to see her again?

* * *

Albus Dumbledore was furious, this Lloyd child was ruining everything, and he had proven to be an excellent potion brewer as well as an intelligent wizard. Most of Albus' staff were still talking about him except for Lily who had been angered by the boy showing up Edward in his first lesson. It would seem the boy was well mannered, even if his fury was fierce when provoked. Apparently the boy had spent a good deal of History of Magic not only awake (whereas Edward had been napping) but also discussing with Professor Binns about a particularly interesting reform in the Goblin nation after a particularly gruesome war. Professor Binns was even talking about Mister Lloyd using his actual name, a feat that the ghost had failed to do for any student in the last three decades. Minerva and Severus had refused to allow him to suspend the boy over his fight with Mister Malfoy during lunch, they said that they had already dealt with the matter sufficiently.

Mister Lloyd could only be trouble. He would have to be made to leave somehow.


	12. Oncoming Judgement

Disclaimer: In chapter one.

AN: Please review.

It was the next afternoon that, after successfully avoiding a prank that Fred and George had devised to turn his hair Weasley orange, Taranau had his first lesson with Professor McGonagall. He rather enjoyed the challenge that came from the casual pranking that Fred and George were performing. They had focused on him as a target as he hadn't yet been hit by any pranks that they had designed, despite once being tied to one another and hung by their feet at the door to the Great Hall by a trap that Taranau had put on the door. Carrog had pulled that one more than once in an endeavour to have Taranau's slice of cake on birthdays.

The door to the transfiguration classroom was already open and he walked into the class. He chose to sit by the window in case he accidently transfigured something dangerous, the four storey fall should deal with it Taranau thought. It was then that he saw the small and brown tabby cat sat on the desk at the front. The cat seemed too… purposeful to be an ordinary cat.

"Are you stuck like that Professor? I could go and ask someone for help if you need it." Taranau asked the cat. He had seen Cysged and Carrog take on the forms of many animals before, usually so that they could talk to younger animals that had strayed from their homes, and he was sure that wizards and witches would have similar magic. The cat leapt from the table and transformed into Professor McGonagall in front of him.

"How did you know that I was the cat Mister Lloyd?"

"You didn't look like a cat."

"I didn't look like a cat Mister Lloyd? What do you mean I didn't look like a cat?"

"Well you did look like a cat but you didn't _look_ like a cat. A real cat wouldn't have been sat on the desk like _that_ , if it had been on the desk it would have been laid on the desk or well just not sat like a person sits." Taranau answered the formidable witch.

"A very astute observation Mister Lloyd, five points to Gryffindor." She went back to her desk and started to call roll. Taranau hadn't even realised that his class had all entered while he insulted the transfiguration professor's transfiguration ability. He rested his head in his hands on his desk.

"Does anyone happen to know where Mister Potter and Mister Weasley are?" No one answered besides a few heads being shook.

It was fifteen minutes later when they both entered and decided that they wanted a seat by the window. "Oi, Lloyd, budge somewhere else won't you?" Ronald called from across the room before making his way towards the table that Taranau currently sat at.

"What, why should I? You two turned up a quarter of the lesson late." Taranau had replied, sincerely hoping that they'd just sit somewhere else, there were plenty of other tables empty.

"Don't you know who I am? I suppose with a name like yours you could be forgiven, I bet you're foreign." Edward had responded.

It was at this point that Professor McGonagall intervened, "I want the pair of you sat at this table at the front and I ought to transfigure one of you into a watch so that you might turn up on time."

They sat at the indicated table and Edward spoke up. "We were lost."

"Maybe a map then." Came the stern witch's reply.

In that lesson they transfigured matches into needles, or rather Taranau and Hermione Granger did and the others attempted it. Edward had managed to embed all of his matches into the ceiling of the room, he claimed he was much too powerful a wizard to do such simple spells. Taranau had narrowly beaten the smart girl and she'd nearly broken down into tears when Professor McGonagall had awarded him two house points for being the first to succeed.

That night Taranau sent Eires south again, after telling her to rest if she needed to and checking that she didn't mind that she was being sent across Britain every day, especially since Taranau wasn't lavishing as much attention on her as he had before Hogwarts. Taranau was not surprised to find that his trunk had been moved once again to the bed by the door of the dorm. He didn't mind at all.

The next morning Taranau was surprised when Eires didn't return alone, both Alexander and Auradain had come as well. Perhaps Eires had taken his words to heart the previous night and decided that flying was too much effort, no matter the reason Taranau was shocked and embarrassed when a pair of phoenixes flamed into the centre of the Great Hall during breakfast and were carrying Eires in their talons, who they released before he swiftly winged his way to his favoured perch atop Taranau's goblet and showed Taranau the letter from Ginny which still had small phoenix flames rolling across the edges. He removed the letter and tucked it into his pocket for later. The two phoenixes had also perched themselves atop nearby goblets. Auradain lifted her leg to show Taranau a letter on it, he felt guilty for not writing to Carrog and Cysged and resolved to write to them at least every other day, he didn't feel much guilt from the fact that Ginny was receiving letters twice as often.

Then he realised that everyone in the Great Hall had fallen into silence and was staring at him. He felt himself blushing so much that he was sure his face had to be aflame from the warmth he felt. Alexander trilled quietly causing Taranau's embarrassment to be replaced by a comforting calmness.

Suddenly he felt two arms rest on his shoulders. "Taranau my boy" The red-haired boy on his right began. "You're face has gone all Weasley red." " _Too right my brother_ ," the one on his left had continued. " _Indeed a better shade than any prank of ours could make."_ "That's a lovely pair of phoenixes you've got there. I reckon phoenixes are excellent for escaping from Filch." " _Of course my brother, and they can get you places you couldn't get without them."_ "Indeed, and that leaves us no choice now doesn't it Taranau." Both boys then knelt on the stone floor beside Taranau.

"Oh Taranau our love, our life." Taranau flushed again. " _Your humble and devout servants."_ "Have a very sincere and important need." _"Of borrowing a pair of fine phoenixes."_ Alexander and Auradain preened themselves at this, drawing themselves to their full height. Taranau looked up at the High Table and saw both Professors McGonagall and Snape silently begging against providing the pranksters with more tools to use.

"They're not mine, you'll have to ask them yourselves." He laughed when the pair pulled a bread roll off the table and held it above them.

"Oh mighty and wise phoenixes." _We bring you this wonderful,"_ "delightful," _"absolutely delicious gift,"_ "In hope that you might aid us in our honourable quest." Taranau looked on in amusement as the two phoenixes took the bread rolls and perched on top of the pair. He was sure that Alexander and Auradain wouldn't let the pranking get too far out of hand. Professor McGonagall had an expression of horror on her face.

Then the two members of the Phoenix High Court took to the air and flamed away, he didn't know whether to the Hearth or to their nest that was hidden away somewhere that not even Carrog and Cysged were allowed to go as the hatching of a young phoenix chick was considered a sacred event by phoenix-kind.

After Fred and George disappeared away, already working on plans for pranks that they could do now that they had help from a pair of phoenixes, Hermione Granger appeared beside him. "Look I know that phoenixes aren't on the list of animals we were allowed to bring, they aren't _my_ companions." The hall was still silent and full of staring faces. He stood and stormed from the room. Maybe he'd only send letters once a week.

He had potions first again. He hoped that Professor Snape hadn't decided to let the… occurrence at breakfast change his behaviour as, despite the potion's professor's foul attitude towards anything Gryffindor, he was Taranau's second-most favourite professor at the school. It helped that Edward was one of those things that were Gryffindor, and that he was so inept at potions that Professor Snape regularly had an excuse to punish the boy.

Another thing that helped was that apparently in Professor Snape's eyes, Taranau wasn't. Perhaps he felt that if he acted like Taranau was a member of Slytherin House it would make it so. They were once again brewing boil curing potions since even Hermione Granger had been unable to completer a single usable dose of the potion on Monday, indeed Edward had had to order a new cauldron when the bottom of his had corroded. Taranau brewed sixteen perfect doses during the hour and Hermione Granger was once again close to tears because Taranau was again excelling in a subject, and again being rewarded for it.

"Mister Lloyd, at the rate you're going, I'll be wanting you to apprentice with me after your potions NEWT" Professor Snape started, although it also sounded to Taranau like failing to apply to do potions for his NEWTs would be worthy of a death sentence. "That will be sixteen points to Slytherin for your excellent work." He'd then walked back to the front as the bell rang.

Despite the bell and despite the fact that he had to go all the way to Herbology, Taranau responded. "I'm a Gryffindor, Professor."

"The points will stand, unless you want a detention Mister Lloyd?" Taranau wondered if this was Professor Snape's way of asking for help in brewing more potions.

"Until seven again Professor?"

"Be on time." Came his quick response before he walked into his office, evidently for him this was a free period.

Edward and Ronald were waiting outside in an almost fury that was mostly a childish tantrum. "How dare he do that! Come with me, we'll get Professor McGonagall to tell him he can't give you a detention or give Slytherin our house points!" It actually sounded like Edward thought that he had also done something to earn the house points when truly Edward had lost more points than Taranau had earned.

"No it's alright, the detentions are pretty fun actually." Taranau had replied. Their eyes threatened to jump from their sockets and Taranau had to restrain himself from laughing.

Unfortunately it would seem that Professor McGonagall had already found out about the potions lesson by the time lunch had come around, despite the fact that his house points had gone to Gryffindor anyway. She walked over to him and told him that he wouldn't need to serve the detention when Taranau whispered to her. "Actually Professor, would you mind if I went anyway, I think Professor Snape is finding it difficult to keep up with the demand that the hospital wing has for potions and teaching at the same time."

"Well then Mister Lloyd, never in all my years have I… you have detention with Professor Snape for the rest of the week!" She exclaimed loudly before storming up to the High Table.

After a particularly interesting discussion about the particularly detested taxing legislation introduced in 1549, which had set taxes particularly high and resulted in a particularly large Goblin revolt, and a practical lesson on the lumos charm, Taranau was waiting outside for his first flying lesson to begin.

It had been an utter catastrophe, Neville Longbottom, who was rather forgetful, had fallen from his broom and broken his wrist, which resulted in about a dozen Slytherins and about a dozen Gryffindors being left unattended on the quidditch pitch. Then Malfoy had shot into the air with a remembrall that Neville had dropped. Of course, Edward had soon after flown at him before he too fell from his broom, he wasn't actually injured, at least visibly, but he still started whining about someone hitting him with a dark curse.

Taranau had heard from Ginny, oh how he longed to fall asleep by their lake with her in his arms again, that Edward was incapable of flying well.

Taranau had then flown up and the scion of House Malfoy had, rather than allow Taranau to reason with him, thrown Neville's remembrall as far away as he could. It was with a glint in his eye that Taranau dived, he was practically in freefall and heading straight for the whomping willow. The remembrall fell through the branches as he dove and it awoke the tree. Taranau had had practice flying at high speeds amongst the trees in the forest. Indeed he and Ginny very much enjoyed shooting through the forest as fast as their custom built brooms could carry them. Carrog was skilled in broom crafting, even if Cysged claimed that any idiot could stick some twigs to the end of a tree branch.

Taranau had no problem at all dodging the flailing branches of the tree even on the school broom and deftly caught the remembrall about a foot from the ground before he straightened up and wove his way around the tree trunk to avoid the branches and burst out above it.

When he landed Professor McGonagall was already waiting for him. She didn't speak, although her frown told him of her disappointment, and simply held out her hand into which he deposited Neville's remembrall and then turned, not even checking that he was following. She led him into her office.

"Mister Lloyd, I should suspend you at the least for what just happened." She spoke calmly. Taranau's head reddened in shame and he kept his head bowed, not even sitting in the seat opposite the professor, he didn't want to already have to go back to the Hearth, he didn't want to see Carrog and Cysged's disappointed faces. "However I shall not be doing so." His face snapped up to look at hers. "I believe that you acted selflessly and nobly, both of which are characteristics that I would like to think that I help foster in my students. As such I shall not give you so harsh a punishment. I would like, however to assign you a detention with me. Perhaps on Saturday afternoon, unless you have any prior arrangements of course?"

"Yes thank you Professor." Taranau stepped towards the door.

"By the way Mister Lloyd." He turned back to face her. "Please try out for the quidditch team next year."

"I will Professor." He pledged before leaving to finish all of his letters.

After both his potions detention, where he had, again, been brewing medical potions for the hospital wing; and been glad that Professor Snape made no reference to anything that had happened that day; besides awarding Slytherin another three house points (one for each dose of calming draught) which had all found their way into the Gryffindor hourglass and his midnight astronomy class; which hadn't taught anything that Hoda had not yet covered in her lessons back in the forest, Taranau finally succumbed to dreams of Ginny's lips upon his own.

* * *

Albus Dumbledore was puzzled. At lunch Minerva had been furious at Severus for assigning Mister Lloyd an undeserved detention and then when she'd told the boy at lunch that the detention was repealed she gave him three detentions with Severus before storming back to the High Table. He had not missed the grateful look that Severus had sent her. However only a few hours later she'd let him off with endangering his own life with only a single detention, although admittedly it was during a weekend day.

He couldn't understand why most of his professors were besotted with the boy. Other than Lily who felt that any rival of her son was an insult to wizarding-kind, none of them had approved of Edward's place on the Gryffindor quidditch team. Minerva felt Mister Lloyd would be a better seeker and even Severus, who regularly helped the Slytherin team hide evidence of cheating, had complained that Mister Lloyd would be the only seeker who could offer a challenge to his team and that he should most certainly be offered the position over Edward otherwise, Severus had said, without some challenge the Quidditch matches would be rather boring.

This was all rather bizarre. Maybe his plans to remove Mister Lloyd needed to be altered. He would be useful should he be easily controlled, he was a skilled wizard and the Weasley twins as well as Minerva and Severus seemed to like the boy, he could be a useful influence on these more rebellious members of the order. He'd see about testing the boy's loyalty to the light.

Perhaps the test Edward would have had to take at Halloween could be rearranged for Mister Lloyd. Yes, that's what would need to be done.


	13. The Dead Are Dead

Disclaimer: In chapter one.

AN: Please review.

That weekend, after earning Gryffindor house, despite Professor Snape's insistence that the points go to Slytherin, another dozen house points and a detention for himself next Monday and Friday, in fact every Monday and Friday until Christmas, Taranau had a detention with Professor McGonagall. In the morning he got all of his homework done so that he'd have free time on Sunday and finished a letter to Carrog and Cysged, he would write to Ginny after the detention as he had previously told her of his various detentions and would tell her what happened in this one too. When Ginny replied to his letter about Professor Snape she had called him 'a big old softie', although Taranau knew that she was just joking.

It was with some trepidation that Taranau knocked on Professor McGonagall's office door at one that afternoon. The formidable witch could be rather fearsome, it didn't help calm him when he remembered that she had threatened to turn Edward and Ronald into watches and maps for being late.

"Good afternoon Mister Lloyd. Would you like a biscuit?" Taranau nodded silently and took an offered biscuit.

"Thank you."

"Mister Lloyd, this detention is not, in fact, a detention." She paused to allow Taranau the chance to understand. "I would like to offer you an opportunity that we do not offer the vast majority of our students." At this he frowned. "As you are aware I'm capable of becoming a cat at will. I believe that your prowess in transfiguration so far and the fact that you could recognise an animagus on sight should mean that you yourself will be capable of performing the animagus transformation."

"Why isn't it taught to all students?" Taranau spoke for the first time during the detention.

"Because nearly all of my students would be incapable of the transformation. Only six people have succeeded in becoming animagi in the last century."

"What is an animagus?" Taranau understood that it would be difficult to teach this to a class when very few would be able to do it.

"An animagus is a person who can transform into an animal. The ani…"

"Can it be any animal?" Taranau's excitement caused him to interrupt.

"Yes, Mister Lloyd, it is believed that there isn't an animal that couldn't be an animagus' form however no wizard or witch is known to have ever had more than one animal form." Taranau decided that this meant that it was different to how Carrog and Cysged became animals as he had seen them take on lots of different animal forms before.

"So you can only turn into a cat?"

"Yes Mister Lloyd."

"You're offering to teach me?"

"Yes Mister Lloyd."

"Is it hard?"

"Yes Mister Lloyd." The transfiguration professor was beginning to become impatient, she hoped that her student wouldn't be adverse to some hard work.

"I'd like to try, at least, please." Taranau finally decided.

"That is good, however you must keep up with all class work and all homework that is set in all of your classes. Should I hear that you are misbehaving in any class or that this is having a negative impact on your work in any class then I shall no longer teach you this transformation. I do not think that I should need to remind you that you may not tell any of your fellow students about this, although I expect that you aren't the sort of student to gloat." She gave him a piercing look and he almost squirmed. It was true he wouldn't gloat but the scrutiny was still disquieting.

Professor McGonagall kept him there for three hours and he left for dinner with an extra two books in his bag. He would have to brew the revealer potion before he could perform any actual transfiguration. One of his books detailed the process of becoming an animagus and the other detailed the issues that an animagus might have once they had successfully completed the transformation. Professor McGonagall had told him that he would not need to register as an animagus until he had successfully completed the transformation.

Taranau wrote to Ginny almost immediately after dinner and asked Eires to go to Flourish and Blots for a copy of the books that Taranau had. He'd sworn in his letter to send her a dose of revealer potion and that when he came home in the summer they could both work together on the transformation as Professor McGonagall had said that she didn't expect him to complete his first transformation before his O.W.L exams.

The next day, during Taranau's potions detention he asked Professor Snape if he'd be willing to help him brew the revealer potion. Professor Snape agreed and promised not to tell anyone that Professor McGonagall was teaching him to be an animagus. The potion would take a month to brew properly. In the meantime Taranau continued to help Professor Snape brew medical potions.

* * *

56 house points to Slytherin; which all found their way to Gryffindor, the results of both his and Ginny's revealer potion and nearly 150 letters later, the Halloween feast was about to begin. Taranau had spent the whole day in a fierce mood that had only brightened when Ginny's letter arrived along with Auradain. Ginny reminded him that even if his first family didn't want him, she did and Auradain sat with him for all of breakfast softly singing while he ate, just as she had done since he was five and had learnt that his first parents had abandoned him this night ten years ago.

He smiled slightly when he was reminded of a prank that Fred and George had persuaded Auradain to help out with the day before. They had supplied the Slytherin table with a powder that when it came in contact with something, that hadn't been charmed against the effects of it, caused that item to become invisible. The Slytherins had quickly discovered that their food was indeed there although they grumbled loudly about the food being invisible.

Taranau was trying to enjoy the feast, although both Professors McGonagall and Snape, who had both allowed him to call them Minerva and Severus in private, had sent him a collective fifteen looks of concern already. Severus was three down on Minerva in number of looks of concern that he'd given.

Suddenly the doors of the Great Hall squeaked and groaned as they were pushed open slightly. A man came through the small gap between the doors. It was Professor Quirrel. He appeared to be pretending to be afraid, although, in Taranau's opinion Professor Quirrel was always pretending to be afraid.

"A troll! Troll in the dungeons! Thought you ought to know." Then he fainted forwards onto the floor of the Great Hall. That confused Taranau, who faints forwards?

Pandemonium had broken out while Taranau watched the fallen professor's body. It was only brought to a halt by a large purple firecracker bursting from the headmaster's wand. "All students should follow the house prefects to their dorms." He was looking straight at Taranau and locked eyes before his eyes glanced up and down the Gryffindor table and met Taranau's again. Was this some sort of message? Taranau looked about. Someone was missing from the group of first year Gryffindors.

"Does anyone know where Hermione Granger is?"

It was Lavender Brown who replied. "Yes she ran crying to the first floor girl's bathroom. Parvati couldn't get her to come to the feast."

When Percy Weasley (another of Ginny's brothers) wasn't looking, Taranau snuck away from the main group of students and headed towards the bathroom. Hermione Granger might be a pain in the neck but she didn't deserve to be attacked by a troll. His armour snapped up around him, black as a starless night and proudly showing his burning stag, as he walked closer. Then he heard her.

"Professor Dumbledore said he'd be here soon. Why isn't he here yet? Professor Dumbledore isn't ever wrong. That Lloyd kid is supposed to fight the troll. He better hurry up, I don't want to stay here all night…" She continued to talk as he stood outside the door. He decided on a course of action. His armour faded into nothingness once more just as the troll stepped around the corner. It didn't see Taranau who had dived behind a podium which had a blue vase on it and it wandered into the girl's bathroom.

Hermione Granger screamed.

Taranau ran into the bathroom with his unique wand pointed at the Troll and shouted. "Lumos Maxima!" The room was bathed in light and when it faded the troll was curled into a ball on the far side of the bathroom. "Get to the dorms." Taranau growled at the girl. He had no patience for her.

She had the sense to run out of the room. Taranau sat down opposite the troll. Once it had regained sight it looked at him and appeared to want to flee. Taranau shuffled further back and took a chunk of wood from a destroyed cubicle. He slid it across to the troll.

It picked it up in its club-less hand and waved it before bashing it together with its club. It seemed to be satisfied and they sat together in silence. It wasn't long before Hermione Granger had returned and with her came Minerva, Severus, the headmaster and Professor Quirrel. Minerva and Severus both came forward to see if Taranau was alright until the troll turned to look at the new intruders.

"I think it would be best if you all stayed over there." Taranau spoke. "I'm fine, honestly."

"What happened here Mister Lloyd?" the headmaster asked.

"Well Headmaster Dumbledore I heard about the troll and thought that I could subdue it, I'd read about a charm you see and when I found it I subdued it. Then Taranau had been following me so he waited here while I went to find a professor." Granger lied effortlessly.

"I think that you'll find that, should you come over to the troll that you supposedly subdued you'll find it to be very non-subdued. Unless you want to prove me wrong?" Taranau replied.

"So you admit that you brought the troll into the castle do you Mister Lloyd?" Came Professor Quirrel's surprisingly steady voice.

"No I did not say any such thing. I bargained with the troll to calm it down. I do not know where to take the troll nor do I know how to ask it where its home is (which was a lie since he had met a clan of trolls in the forest and had picked up the language) so I chose to wait since I was certain that Granger would not do as I'd told her." Taranau answered with irritation colouring his tone.

"What did you tell her to do Mister Lloyd?" the headmaster asked.

"To go to the dorms." Came Taranau's swift response.

"I believe Mister Lloyd, Albus." Both Minerva and Severus said at the same time. Granger looked rather fearful. "That will be twenty points from Gryffindor for lying about such an important thing Miss Granger. And twenty points to you Mister Lloyd for handling this situation in such a calm manner." Minerva told them before she swept from the room with Granger's shoulder held tightly in her grip.

"Mister Lloyd, It is time you went to your dorm. Severus could you make sure that he arrives safe and sound?" the headmaster asked.

Taranau stood and walked to the doorway before Severus led him away. Professor Quirrel had also left heading towards the staff quarters when suddenly, "Bombarda Maxima!" came from within the bathroom. Tears fell from Taranau's eyes as he twisted to run back to the bathroom. That troll had only been a c

hild.

turned towards Gryffindor Tower once more.

* * *

Albus Dumbledore was very happy. Mister Lloyd had passed this test. As Albus looked down at the slain troll he wondered if perhaps he ought to devise more tests. Perhaps if Mister Lloyd stays at Christmas then he can take part in another test. He vanished the bleeding corpse, Argus could clean the blood later. Then Albus headed for his bed.

Yes, Mister Lloyd would become a suitable candidate for Albus' order.


	14. How My Heart Aches

Disclaimer: In chapter one

AN: Please review.

It was two weeks later that the majority of the student body discovered that Edward Potter was the new Gryffindor seeker. In that time Granger had managed to ingratiate herself into Edward's circle. Taranau had not been surprised when Lee Jordan read Edward's name out to the stadium at the start of the match, although Minerva's glance towards him followed by a quick frown made him think that there had been quite the argument about the position.

The match was a disaster. The Slytherins wee fouling left, right and centre and the Gryffindors were playing terribly. The twins hadn't been too bad, Taranau wondered whether they had enlisted Alexander and Auradain to teach them how to improve their flying as they were considerably better than their teammates. He and Ginny had certainly taken advantage of their expertise when it came to flying in order to improve their own flying.

Ginny, it had seemed to Taranau, could have beaten the entire Gryffindor team by herself. The worst player however, was by far Edward. Near the end of the match he had flown erratically across the pitch before jumping from his broom twenty feet in the air, a feat neither he nor Ginny had ever been foolish enough to attempt.

It was at about the same time as he leapt from the broom that Granger was caught setting fire to Severus' robes and Ronald was caught attempting to feed his fist to Malfoy. The Slytherin seeker, Higgins, caught the snitch only a few minutes later yet it was still after half of the professors' stand burnt to ashes.

That evening at dinner Taranau decided to sit at the Slytherin table and avoid the gloomy mood at the Gryffindor table, there was no rule dictating where he could sit. He was surprised to find the twins sat next to him and were celebrating even though they had lost. The Slytherins were giving them odd looks but the twins claimed that they were making up for the fact that the Halloween feast had been cut short. Taranau had only sat at the Slytherin table twice before.

The first time, his dorm mates had given him a fair bit of shouting for it, although Taranau had already adapted his wolf glare to suit humans and the other boys quickly learnt that it meant to leave him be. He was sure Minerva would, as she had done both times before, make it her personal mission to ensure Taranau sat with the Gryffindors the next morning.

Indeed as he left the common room the next day he found Minerva waiting for him by the portrait hole. Taranau still didn't quite understand the competition that Minerva and Severus had in relation to him. He did end up sitting at the Gryffindor table however he didn't miss the smirk that Minerva sent to Severus. Unfortunately Edward returned from the hospital wing the same day and the other students were once again enthusiastically listening to him complain about dark wizards siding with the Slytherin team.

Christmas was fast approaching. Ginny had already told him that she was going to the Romanian National Dragon Reserve over the holiday with her parents and Carrog and Cysged had asked that he stay at Hogwarts over the holidays as well. He didn't mind since he was sure that if he had returned to the Hearth, only for Ginny to be elsewhere, he'd have been disappointed.

Taranau was pleased with his haul, it included a scarf that Ginny had knitted herself, even though she hated knitting, and it had a horse made of dark grey storm clouds on it with thin blue jagged streaks running across the horse, he didn't know the emblem unless… perhaps it was Ginny's own that she had earnt while he was gone. He had a gift from Carrog and Cysged of an old flute that Carrog had used at many Elven parties, much to Cysged's dismay. He felt the present was probably more from Cysged, and probably more for her as well.

Eires had given him a nest made of bones which he knew she had spent many months weaving together. He hoped no-one at Hogwarts would be upset by Eires' now vast collection of skeletons for neither he nor anyone else had managed to persuade her to resist the temptation of carrying the skeletons home with her. Alexander and Auradain had gifted him a feather from each of them which he was sure would last longer as a quill than any of the five quills that he had already broken. His friends in the herd, Sammuntia and the wolf pack that he had been running with each morning for the last six years had all sent him gifts of their own as well.

Despite many unique and some powerful artefacts, as well as the most wonderful, soft and warm scarf known to man, the present that the other boys in the dorm were all focused on was Edward's invisibility cloak. He'd been sent it by his father. It was an excellent cloak and in his gloating Edward revealed that the cloak had been an heirloom for centuries. This confused Taranau. Demiguise hair lost its invisibility a few years after it was removed from the demiguise that it had grown on and no disillusionment charm could last for more than a generation as they would end as soon as the caster died. What sort of invisibility cloak could work for centuries?

* * *

Three nights later, Edward Potter snuck out of the dorm room. Taranau was writing in the common room as he usually did at night after everyone else was asleep. Taranau heard Edward speaking to Ronald as they attempted to sneak out of Gryffindor Tower without attracting his attention.

When he heard the portrait entrance close, Taranau got up and put all of his things into the dorm before he came back down into the common room. Suddenly his armour sprang up around him, black as a starless night and proudly bearing his flaming stag emblem, he momentarily thought about how Ginny would look in her own armour. Then both boy and armour could no longer be seen. Taranau pushed open the portrait entrance and ran down the corridor. Edward and Ronald were on the Great Staircase complaining about the moving staircases trying to send them to the cerberus again.

Cerberus? Again? Where had they met a Cerberus? Unless... they'd been to the third floor corridor. Cerberuses were known as guards for vaults and treasures, besides of course The Cerberus who had been a guardian of the realm of the dead.

Taranau definitely wanted to follow them now.

They were wandering about and it seemed as if they were almost lost before finally they arrived at a spare classroom. They entered the room. Taranau entered after and stood in a corner.

"See, it shows me with the head boy badge and the Gryffindor Quidditch Captain badge and there's a load of gold as well. Can't you see it?"

"I just see you mate." Came Ronald's reply.

"No, no stand here and look in it properly."

"I see myself but I have all of the stuff you were talking about. Do you think it shows the future?" Ronald spoke.

"Don't be an idiot we can't both be Head Boy. Get out of the way, I want to see again." The two boys continued to argue for a short while before eventually they decided to both go back to bed. Taranau snuck forward and stood before the mirror. 'Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi' was carved into the golden frame above the mirror's pane.

Taranau could not see himself in the mirror. He looked around the room. Surely a magical artefact like this would not be without some form of protection. He climbed under a table and became hidden from the rest of the room by chair legs. His armour disappeared into nothingness. He rolled from under the table and came to be standing before the mirror once more.

He saw their lake, the moon was half full and shone down upon a slight girl, with hair like liquid fire, eyes like chocolate which harboured shining golden stars within and freckles dancing across the bridge of her nose. A smile grew across her face, a tear rolled down his. "You have no idea how my heart aches for you." He spoke to the image of his Ginny.

A hand rose to touch the mirror and she giggled softly although he couldn't truly hear her. His hand rose higher. It touched the inscription, first it wandered left to right, but then it went backwards. He understood. Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi. I show not your face but your heart's desire.

Ginny truly was his heart's desire.

* * *

Albus Dumbledore was confused. He didn't see Mister Lloyd enter the room. It was true that he had not been watching the door after Edward left with Ron however surely he should have noticed when Mister Lloyd entered. Still, the words that he heard from Mister Lloyd were… pleasing, it was clear Mister Lloyd had lost someone. Perhaps he could attempt to fulfil the role that Mister Lloyd needed, it would be an easy enough opportunity to take advantage of.

That's what he'd do. Mister Lloyd was about to receive a new grandfather. Albus was sure that Mister Lloyd would be a useful asset. It was a shame he hadn't known beforehand. Then he would have been the one to bring magic into the boy's life. Alas at least Minerva was a member of the Order.

Albus Dumbledore's puzzles may have faded into the back of his mind, but he was certainly having lots of fun playing this chess game.


	15. A Crime Against Magic

Disclaimer: In chapter one.

AN: Please review.

Taranau had discovered that listening to a certain trio of Gryffindors' conversations led to discovering a variety of interesting things. For example, a Cerberus was guarding a trapdoor in the third floor corridor and, more urgently, the Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts was attempting to hatch a dragon.

Taranau had written to Ginny about the dragon in the hope that she might know something that might help him protect it, he wouldn't allow the headmaster to murder it. She'd written back telling him that her brother at the Romanian National Dragon Reserve would be able to care for it.

Therefore Taranau was hiding outside of the rather large man's hut with his armour snapped up around him, black as a starless night and proudly showing his flaming stag. The man pushed open his door and stepped outside. Both boy and armour disappeared into nothingness. The man and his boarhound wandered off down the path towards the forest.

"Somethin' been killin' dem unicorns. Dunno what it could be tho'. Hurry up Fang!" The man said to himself as he walked past Taranau's hiding place.

Something was killing unicorns? Taranau wondered why he had been so eager to come to Hogwarts in the first place now. As he thought that thought a golden light flashed atop the astronomy tower and rushed across the roof tops before it disappeared above the great oak doors which were banded in black iron that granted entrance into Hogwarts. His head turned back to the hut. He had a task to perform.

Taranau darted through the open door. The Norwegian Ridgeback was jet black and it laid upon the table. It was clearly sleeping despite the spurts of fire that were coming out from its nostrils as it breathed. Its wings were too weak for Taranau to expect it to fly at all.

Taranau appeared. He woke the dragon gently by pushing both wings up to its sides. The dragon's yellow eyes narrowed into slits and focused upon Taranau's painted on eyes. Taranau's armour faded into nothingness. The young dragon judged him for a long time. Eventually, however, her head ducked down, its wings tightened up at her sides and her tail curled up beside her body. The dragon's head dipped again.

Taranau put his arms beneath the dragon. He carried her into the forest. It was a long trek before he reached a small lake. It appeared like the water was only a few inches deep but Taranau knew better. In the centre of the lake there was an island. Upon it was a white tree with a trunk that seemed to be twisted around itself and several blood red lines ran up and down it, all of random lengths and others running across them weaving together into an intricate pattern. It bore leaves of the same colour as the markings. It was the heart tree of the Forbidden Forest that had stood since the first trees pushed forth from the skin of the earth and it had fed magic into the surrounding lands constantly for its whole life.

The waters were calm and still, they held a serene blue and no water poured in from any river or stream. No creature disturbed the water and no stones fragmented it. Taranau waded out into the water carrying the young dragon above the water. The water quickly became too deep for him to continue to wade so he started to swim, still carrying the dragon out of the water's reach.

When they finally arrived upon the island where the heart tree stood the young dragon loosed a burst of flames upon the man hatchling who had carried her. The flames were cool to the touch and the boy did not burn, yet the water that had clung to his clothes and flesh disappeared in the fire.

Once the fire had stilled and died down, Taranau put a hand to the heart tree. Its trunk started to untwist and where before had been a solid tree now stood a wooden arch made of a pure white wood, and the markings that he had seen now danced along the top of the archway and were wrapped like vines around the wood that made up the sides of the arch. The archaic language that was carved into the top of the arch had never been taught to him but he knew both Carrog and Cysged could read it.

The water, which had before been still, became a frenzy of movement, ripples ran across its surface, bubbles sprung up around the edges and it rushed onto the island to fill the empty space of the archway like a veil. The stone edge to the lake began to rotate slowly and both boy and dragon stepped into the watery arch.

Then suddenly they were looking upon a small lake with water that was calm and still and held a serene blue. No water poured in from any river or stream nor did any creature disturb the water and there was no stone that fragmented it. A great heart tree stood behind boy and dragon, not weathered by age and time.

Once more Taranau waded through the water. Once more he swam where it became too deep for wading and once more the dragon was untouched by the waters. When they reached the forest on the far bank the dragon released fire upon her bearer and the cool flames danced across him, they removed from him any water that still clung to his flesh and clothes.

Taranau carried the young dragon from the lake and through the forest. It was a wilder forest filled with more shadows and more secrets than the forest from which they had come, Taranau had explored the Forbidden Forest rather thoroughly. He reached the edge of the trees. Before them stood a range of mountains, a larger lake lay to their right with three streams flowing into it and one river running gently from it. Taranau stepped from the trees into the grass between him and the mountains.

The sky was filled with dragons. Dragons of all colour and size and shape flew from wherever they had been and to someplace else. Except for one. A large red dragon stood alone in the field. Its tail whipped from side to side, the ivory horns in it glinting as the sun struck them. It stepped forward. Then it stepped again.

Taranau lay the young dragon by his feet and stepped backwards. It was only a few moments before the red dragon with its horned tail began to carry the young black hatchling to her nest. Taranau feared that the dragon might eat the hatchling and so stood where he was, watching until the red dragon released the younger dragon from her jaw and curled up around it with one wing shading it. Both red dragon and black hatchling fell asleep. It reminded Taranau of Cysged's emblem, he knew they had once lived in the Scandinavian mountains and it was likely that she had earnt her emblem there amongst the many wild dragons that still roamed the frozen mountains there.

Taranau turned about. It was time he returned to Hogwarts. He had a letter to write to Ginny.

* * *

It was a week later that Taranau again set out at night for the forest. Unicorn slaying was a crime against magic itself, he'd discover the culprit and he'd end the unicorn slaying that night he had decided. When he reached the forest edge he was glad to see that Carrog and Cysged had brought some Guardsmen with them. Guardsmen came from all of the magical races and were trained by Carrog and Cysged and some senior Guardsmen to defend the balance of life and enforce the ancient laws, it was a service that would cost each of them their lives eventually but it was an important one. The Guardsmen were supposed to always be a secret and the last time someone who wasn't a member had discovered their existence they had revealed them to the whole world and it had resulted in a mass memory wipe for almost every human and most of the other races as well. Taranau hoped none of the Guardsmen minded that he and Ginny knew about them.

There were seven Guardsmen there that night, each in black armour that ran from head to toe and unlike Carrog and Cysged's the face mask shifted constantly to allow the occupants to breathe. Each one had a different emblem, a white crow in flight, a bolt of green lightning, a blue ship, three golden pears one above the other, a rose on the cusp of blooming, three red stars in a triangle pointing downwards and a grapevine wrapped around a white tree.

Taranau's armour snapped up around him, black as a starless night and proudly bearing a flaming stag. Together the ten walked into the forest. They walked deep. A thudding could be heard to the right. Then a fully grown centaur appeared from the undergrowth. He had a short red beard and his red hair ran down his back and to his chestnut more equine half. He rode bare-chested and had a single red star on his rear left leg.

"Who dares to wander our forest this night?" called the centaur.

"The Grandfather and Grandmother dare, and their child also, to wander this forest tonight, Ronan foal beneath the beech. We seek the one who is slaying unicorn." Carrog told him. Ronan looked at the ten bodies before him and then chose to ignore that of them, only three had been accounted for. He would not challenge the Grandparents twice in one night.

"Mars is bright tonight, Grandfather."

"And Venus rises," came Taranau's voice, "Where one goes the other follows, for they do not part by far." All heads had turned to face him.

"This is true." Ronan spoke, surprised at this one's understanding of the heavens, he must surely be the child of the Grandparents. "Always the innocent are the first victims, so it has been for ages past."

"Of this unicorn slayer, is there anything that you could tell us?" Cysged asked.

"The forest hides within it many secrets, Grandmother. You and yours know this better than I and mine." Ronan told them. He then turned and rode once more into the undergrowth.

The ten wandered again until they came upon a fallen unicorn. It was wounded and its breathing was harsh. From the far side of the clearing a shade slithered closer to the fallen beast. Taranau heard a sigh of relief from one of the Guardsmen beside him, clearly he felt the shade wasn't dangerous.

Its head rose to meet each of their eyes and Taranau's forehead suddenly began to tingle as it lingered on him before dipping down towards the unicorn's neck and feeding greedily from the unicorn. As it turned to leave the way that it had come a knife was driven into its hand.

"You shall no longer feast upon the blood of unicorns. No unicorn shall be slain by you. This I command. As I say it, I mean it. As I mean it, I say it. So mote it be." Carrog spoke similarly to how he spoke at Moon Council. A breeze passed through the small clearing and Taranau could feel the magic that accompanied it. A cold high pitched laughter filled the darkened woods. Then all laughter stopped altogether, only to be replaced by a scream. The shade slithered away and disappeared into the shadows at the far side of the clearing.

Together the ten walked once more to the place where the forest met Hogwarts grounds. Then nine departed and one faded into nothingness. He had a letter to write. Ginny would be unhappy that she had not been able to come to Hogwarts for this and that they had not been able to meet.

Taranau missed Ginny dearly.

* * *

Albus Dumbledore did not understand Mister Lloyd. For over a month the boy had spurned him when he tried to help the boy. Surely he must understand that Albus was just trying to help him. No-one should suffer losing a family member and he was only trying to fill in the hole that had been left behind by Mister Lloyd's departed family member.

Other mysteries were also appearing. Hagrid's dragon had disappeared from his hut one afternoon and, despite the fact that Edward hadn't been sent into the forest, the unicorns were no longer being hunted. He feared Tom had chosen to speed up his quest for the philosopher's stone. He was also worried that Edward would not be able to work out all of the clues before Quirinus attempted to steal the stone. He'd have to give him a gentle push in the right direction.

Albus summoned a house elf and told it to take a message to Miss Granger's bed. He wanted to speak with her.


	16. Faults In Stone-Set Plans

Disclaimer: In chapter one.

AN: Please review.

Ginny had been understandably upset that she'd missed a chance to be with him, however she also understood that she couldn't have come along and so forgave Taranau immediately for only telling her about the trip into the forest afterwards.

Taranau did, however, tell her beforehand about the fact that he was going to prevent the shade from the forest from stealing the philosopher's stone from within the school. He'd discovered from listening into conversations that Edward, Ronald and Granger had been having in the common room that the artefact in the east wing of the third floor was the philosopher's stone and that it was soon to be stolen by someone. They believed it to be Severus.

He thought it was the shade in the forest. It was this that resulted in Taranau sending a letter to Carrog and Cysged the night before the last of his exams. He'd completed them all with outstanding skill and Minerva had informed him in passing that the headmaster wouldn't be in school the next day. Taranau felt that his absence would likely motivate the shade to attack the school and attempt to gain the hidden philosopher's stone.

When Taranau came face to face with Carrog, Cysged, the seven Guardsmen from before, five other Guardsmen and Ginny in the entrance hall the next evening he was surprised. He hadn't realised that Ginny already had her own armour, then he saw her smirk and the glint in her eye and he knew that she'd wanted to surprise him. Taranau had to resist the temptation to take a hold of her. Her armour, as black as a starless night and proudly showing her emblem (which was the same as the one on his Christmas present) a horse made of dark grey storm clouds with jagged blue streaks flashing across the horse's body, snapped up around her. The Guardsmen who had come with them split into pairs and then all faded into nothingness.

One pair arrived in a corridor just outside of the entrance to Gryffindor Tower and the torches fell from their braces and the corridor in front of the Fat Lady fell into a pitch black darkness. The pair stood beside the portrait which was now calling out into the dark and became stone, a notice-me-not charm keeping any passers-by from remembering the previous lack of statues in that corridor. The torches then returned to their braces and started to burn again.

Another pair found themselves in a narrow spiral staircase facing a simple oak door with a bronze eagle-head knocker. One hand went up to the knocker and knocked only to be answered by a question. 'What is it that the rich don't want, the poor have in great amount and if drunk will kill you?'

"Nothing." The door swung open to reveal a light blue room with a few sofa's scattered about. One wall was entirely a window and three doors lay in the far wall. Above the one on the left a sign read 'boys' and above the right it read 'girls' yet the door between was without any sign and simply had a black eagle painted onto it. The room was empty and the pair opened the large window before stepping out and becoming gargoyles just below the window. A gust of wind blew the window shut again.

A third pair arrived at the barrels that led to the Hufflepuff common room. They tapped thrice on the barrel in the middle on the second row and the barrels disappeared to show an earthen tunnel that sloped upwards and out of sight. The pair entered the tunnel and as they walked roots punctured the tunnel and grappled with one another forming several wooden portcullises along the passageway. The pair then sat behind the fifth portcullis as a pair of badgers, the door into the common room behind them.

A final pair came to the wall that parted the Slytherin common room from the rest of the dungeons. A hand covered in the scales that made up their armour came to the door. A squelching could be heard as very faint outline of the door disappeared and the door became a part of the wall. The engraved snakes in the ceiling, which usually marked the entrance to the common room, slithered further down the hallway and a painting of a pair of basilisks in a fierce battle appeared over where the door used to be.

The library and kitchens also held their own pairs of Guardsmen who sealed the rooms and added protections to those areas. Only a few students were still in the library and a quick compulsion spell ensured that they would stay in the library until the events of that night were done with. The house elves in the kitchen recognised the Guardsmen and did not disturb them as they sent a constant stream of magic through the walls and up into the castle's wards. A faint golden web appeared over the castle and grounds and the gemstone in the Winged Boar Gate shone brightly.

Carrog, Cysged, Ginny and Taranau entered the third floor corridor. A harp was playing at the far end and the door to the cerberus' room was wide open. The cerberus was sleeping to the melody being played and the trapdoor beside one of its feet rested open. Taranau dropped through first, his armour's boots taking the impact as he landed on a stone floor in a dark room. As the others dropped into the room he looked around the chamber. He could see burn marks about the room and there was a small square of soil that the stone floor didn't cover, in the soil lay a blackened stem. The four continued onwards.

They came to a room where winged keys fluttered above them, diving and dashing as they went. On the far side of the room by a pair of heavy oak doors were four brooms. When Carrog attempted an unlocking charm on the door it remained unmoved. Ginny leapt upon the Cleansweep that rested against the wall and started hunting. The others each took a broom from the wall as well. Together they identified and caught the wounded silver key.

They stepped into the third chamber and saw that the floor had changed. Where before it had been a mixture of browns, greys and the occasional green, here it was a rigid black and white. Before them stood black chess pieces each one taller than they were themselves. On the far side of the room stood their white counter parts. Ronald lay on the floor beside a pile of black chunks of rock. Taranau saw Ginny's worry at the state of her brother but it was Carrog who told her that her brother was simply asleep and that he would wake up soon.

Cysged was the best chess player of them all and she started to play chess using them as pieces. The chessmen were exceptionally violent and completely destroyed the chess pieces that they attacked. Clearly Carrog felt no remorse in return the favour. Whenever Cysged directed him into a space he would turn the offending chess piece into a mound of dust.

By the time they'd reached the other side, Granger was stood in the doorway. Together the four faded into nothingness. After a moment she ran to Ronald and shook him awake before the two of them ran past where they were stood. They had to tell Professor Dumbledore of the intruders.

In the next chamber there was only a troll. It was already dead with the top of its head burst open. As they entered the fifth chamber flames filled both doorways. A table held seven potions flasks. There was a riddle in front of the fourth bottle.

 _Danger lies before you, while safety lies behind,_ _  
_ _Two of us will help you, whichever you would find,  
One among us seven will let you move ahead,  
Another will transport the drinker back instead,  
Two among our number hold only nettle wine,  
Three of us are killers, waiting bidden in line.  
Choose, unless you wish to stay here forevermore,  
To help you in your choice, we give you these clues four:  
First, however slyly the poison tries to hide  
You will always find some on nettle wine's left side;  
Second, different are those who stand at either end,  
But if you would move onward, neither is your friend;  
Third, as you see clearly, all are different size,  
Neither dwarf nor giant holds death in their insides;  
Fourth, the second left and the second on the right  
Are twins once you taste them, though different at first sight._

Taranau chose to take the lead on this chamber as he enjoyed logic games. "I've got it. That one, the smallest is the one to get through the fire. I imagine that the potions only refill once the room is empty. There is only enough potion for one of us. Will you wait for me, please?" He already held the potion in his hand and the cap of the flask in the other.

Cysged and Carrog both looked worried and Ginny's eyes held tears. She stepped forward and threw her arms around him "I'll always be where you need me." She whispered into his neck. When they eventually released each other he took the potion and stepped backwards into the flames.

The final chamber held a magical artefact that Taranau had already come across before. The mirror that showed him Ginny. In front of it stood both Professor Quirrel and Edward Potter.

"I only see myself drinking the elixir of life and there's loads of gold. I can't see the bloody stone." Edward told the professor.

"The boy speaks the truth." Came a high-pitched voice from the same place that Professor Quirrel was stood in. "However, it seems that we have another visitor. Come forward."

A man in armour, black as a starless night and boldly bearing a stag made of swirling flames, stepped from the shadows at the edge of the room and down the steps into the center of the room. "If you want the stone from within the mirror then would it not be wise to break the mirror and simply take it." As he spoke a golden light came from the wall and a stone bench rose from the floor beside him. He looked upon the bench with distrust, he had seen that golden light before, although his painted mask didn't show his emotions. The man in armour sat down on the seat which was much more comfortable than he had thought it would be.

"Who are you?" The high-pitched voice spoke. It most certainly wasn't Quirrel since his mouth hadn't moved. The shade must be inhabiting his body, Taranau thought.

"I've been told that names are powerful things. Just the quietest whisper of a name can break the bravest of men and have them flee or, with the right name, it can make the most cowardly of men stand his ground and fight like a devil. Let us not throw names about for no good reason." The armoured man replied.

"You're a fool. There is power and there are those too weak to use it. If your name is so powerful then why don't you use it?" High-pitched laughter rang around the stone chamber. "Come here. Stand in front of this mirror." The voice commanded. The man in armour stood before the mirror and looked into its depths.

"What do you see?" the voice asked. The man in armour did not see riches or any elixir, he saw a young girl with hair of fire and eyes of chocolate which harboured small golden stars that shone from within them. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a small red stone and showed it to him before putting it into her pocket once more.

"I see the love of my life." The man in armour told him. Both Edward and Quirrel looked at him with undisguised disgust. The armoured man turned to leave. He felt that the stone was probably safe.

"Stop him! He must be lying!" Came the high-pitched voice. Quirrel leapt at the armoured man. Taranau tripped and fell onto his back. His armour shifted and faded into nothingness. Edward couldn't see him behind the pillar and Quirrel's hands gripped around Taranau's neck. Then he screamed. His hands started to blister. Where they touched Taranau they blackened and then an acrid smoke poured forth. His hands started to melt and then in a sudden rush of blisters Quirrel's body became entirely covered in boils and he collapsed. A black shade launched itself from the quickly melting body.

It dove for Taranau. Then it screamed before it finally fled the room with its high-pitched voice still lingering behind, echoing around the chamber. Albus Dumbledore entered the room.

Taranau faded into nothingness. He slipped past the headmaster, who was now unbinding Edward from the ropes that held him, and into the previous chamber. A force threw him against the wall before he felt kisses running up and down his face before they started to dance along his neck. His hands came up to the face of the beautiful girl in front of him and guided her lips to his.

When they had finished their reunion all four left together and when they reached the entrance hall they once more numbered sixteen, a pulse of magic having rushed through the castle to summon the various Guardsmen within. Fifteen departed into the dawn and one faded into nothingness. He headed for his bed. There were no classes tomorrow and he needed a good long rest.

Alexander was already carrying the philosopher's stone to Tintagel Castle in Cornwall. The Flamels would have their masterpiece again by sunrise.

* * *

Albus Dumbledore was furious. Edward had told him about a man in black armour who had bested Quirinus and Miss Granger had told him of four men in the same armour who had been in the chess room. Two of whom, judging by the emblems that marked their fronts, were the same as the two that had been part of his puzzle over a decade before. How dare they interrupt his plans! His puzzles weren't supposed to affect his carefully formed plans. At least they hadn't made any real differences for his end result. Of course not knowing where the stone had gone was a pressing issue and he no longer knew where Nicolas and Perenelle were as they had not been in Tintagel Castle when he had gone earlier that morning, nor could Fawkes find them.

To add injury to insult, Mister Lloyd hadn't responded to his entreaties in any positive way at all. In fact Albus wondered if the boy might have been avoiding him. Well, if the boy wouldn't join Albus then the boy was an enemy of the light. And Albus would crush him.

However Albus' next plan was already set in motion. Molly had told him that, despite her best efforts, Ginevra hadn't become taken with Edward and would be of little use in Albus' plans. He had reassured her that even the lightest of families could have black sheep every so often. He'd chosen to remove her from being able to influence Edward at all and as such from the Weasley family. He had done it before, he could do it again, and a little girl would be no more difficult to deal with than a one year old baby boy.

Lucius, he was sure, would definitely take the bait.


	17. A Riddle In An Enigma In A Diary

Disclaimer: In chapter one.

AN: Please review.

The scarlet train pulled into Hogsmeade station just as the carriages carried the students of Hogwarts to the station's doors. Taranau had asked Eires the previous night to stay south with Ginny since he'd be following her shortly. He placed his trunk into the first compartment of the train that he came across. The train pulled out of the station with a shrill whistle and the Scottish Highlands began to pass across Taranau's window.

Soon the trolley lady brought around some food and he bought a few chocolates. Then he settled in for a peaceful rest during the long ride to King's Cross Station, however it was not to be.

Edward, Ronald and Granger had all had a sudden growth spurt when it came to their egos and were much smugger after having earnt a hundred house points each from the headmaster during the leaving feast. This had allowed them to take the house cup from Slytherin, who had been winning up until that point even with Taranau's house points eventually making their way to Gryffindor despite Severus' complaints that the points were meant for Slytherin. The compartment door slid open with a soft rattle.

"Oi! Lloyd! Go somewhere else. This is our compartment." Edward shouted at him. Taranau stood and allowed his magic to run freely, during his time amongst other humans he had had to keep a tight leash on his magic. In the forest his magic had been an almost independent entity wandering the forest by itself and seeking out other magic, only returning in full when he wanted to use it for a more powerful magic than usual or if he found himself in danger. It had not enjoyed being trapped and it showed.

Lightning leapt from Taranau to the walls of the compartment marring them, a fierce storm formed in the sky as gale-speed winds rattled the train and roared around it. Then the world was plunged into darkness. A coldness began to fill the train.

"Leave me." Taranau whispered into the midday night. "Leave now." His voice was deathly calm and held a hint of the coldness that was frosting up the window. When lightning next flashed from him light returned to the Hogwarts Express, and to the sky around it. He was the only inhabitant of the compartment once more.

Now Taranau could settle in for a nice rest.

* * *

Later the train pulled into King's Cross Station and Taranau leapt from the train with his trunk in his hands and sprinted through the families for Carrog and Cysged. He saw Edward and his group climb out of the train and all steadfastly ignore him as he ran, he was sure they wouldn't tell on him as they were much too proud to admit that they had run away in fear.

A metre or so from Carrog and Cysged he released his trunk and let it continue on its path towards them alone while he shot off to the left in search of Ginny. He left behind a laughing couple, who had stopped his trunk with their feet, as they watched him running away from them.

A fiery blur flitted between the various families in the station before colliding with Taranau.

"I love you." Taranau heard as he wrapped the slight girl in his arms and pulled her into his body. She kissed him softly before pulling back to look into his emerald eyes. She could see the flames dancing in his eyes, the joy that he felt was clear, as was his love for her. He bent down to reciprocate.

"I love you too." His lips soon found her neck and then her shoulder before jumping back to her face as she giggled. When Carrog's hand landed upon Taranau's shoulder they leapt apart, blushing, and turned to see a grinning Carrog and Cysged's hand was covering her laughing mouth.

"There'll be time for that this evening. Come on Taranau, the sooner you get unpacked, the sooner you can run down to the lake." Carrog told him. Taranau turned back to Ginny, gave her a soft peck and walked away with Carrog and Cysged. At the point where platform nine and three quarters met the rest of King's Cross Station, Taranau turned around and gave Ginny a final wave, before passing through the barrier.

The three walked to Cysged's old home in London before flaming back to the Hearth. Cysged's home had a blue roof and on the inside the ceilings were a pure white with ornate floral patterns embellished in the centre of the ceilings. The doors to the various rooms each had a different Celtic design carved into them and the stairs were held up by thin stone pillars which each had a stone dragon wrapped about them with the dragons' heads resting on the banisters, each head had a sapphire eye and a ruby eye.

Once at the Hearth, Taranau rushed to his room and, with magic, unpacked as fast as he could. He knew that the ambient magic in the forest hid all of the magic that was performed there and his own magic wouldn't be recognised by the Ministry of Magic in and amongst it. When he turned to run into the forest to go to their lake, he saw Cysged in the doorway. "Don't you have a note that says that you aren't allowed to do that?" Cysged asked.

"Note? I don't have any idea what you're on about. Really, why wouldn't I be allowed to do magic?"

"Both Carrog and I went to Hogwarts, silly. Don't try to pull one over me. We've both visited the castle regularly and know the school rules well enough. Why should you be allowed down to the lake tonight, is the real question."

"No please, please, I'm really sorry. Please." Cysged stepped out of the doorway.

"Water the tomatoes before you go!" she called over her shoulder to him. Taranau was in the garden and already watering in moments, and then he was sprinting down to the lake. He hadn't spent any proper time with Ginny in months.

It wasn't until a month later that Cysged persuaded Taranau to stop sleeping by the lake with Ginny and only then because she had permitted them to sleep in the Hearth together. The twins had discovered a lack of Ginny in her bed once when they had attempted to prank her. That morning Ginny had revealed that she flew at night and that they most certainly weren't allowed to join her on her night-flights, all while also keeping the fact that she regularly slept at the Hearth a secret. The pair agreed to help her hide her night-time expeditions from their mum when Ginny promised not to try and get them back for trying to prank her while she slept.

* * *

It was late in August that the Weasleys went to Diagon Alley. Carrog, Cysged and Taranau went at the same time, however, so did the Potters and Granger. The Weasleys had become much wealthier through their work with Dumbledore and their friendship with the Potters so Mrs Weasley took Ginny to buy a new wand. Perhaps a wand all of her own would remind Ginny of her responsibilities to the light and her family would no longer be tarred by her not accepting her role in Albus' plans.

"Hello there Miss Weasley. I've been waiting for you. A friend of mine, who just so happens to be somewhat of a skilled wand crafter, gave me a wonderful gift only yesterday. This friend told me that the seventh first year girl to enter my shop this summer would be destined for the wand. And that just so happens to be you." Ollivander had appeared from behind a shelf when Mrs Weasley rang the desk bell and was now opening a wand box on the desk. The purple box had a large pink '7' written on its lid. "Which arm is your wand arm Miss Weasley?"

"My right." She answered with conviction.

"Excellent, take this wand please Miss Weasley." And Ginny did. The resulting shower of dark green balls had been all that Ollivander needed to recognise that the wand had chosen its master. "This is a very unique wand Miss Weasley. There is only one other wand like it since, it would seem, only the one wand crafter knows how to craft wands from metal. Most magical cores do not enjoy being encased in metal." Ollivander sighed, obviously thinking back on his own attempts to create a metal wand. "I don't know what core it holds, however, I do know that this is a very powerful wand. I also know that it will be eight galleons, thank you."

Mrs Weasley paid for the wand and ushered Ginny from the wand shop, she led her to Flourish and Blots bookstore where they joined the queue that Mr Weasley was stood in. Only moments later Gilderoy Lockhart pulled Edward from the line and they both pranced before the reporters and photographers. Moments after that Draco Malfoy started to insult Edward which resulted in Edward punching him. Mr Weasley and Lucius Malfoy were at fisticuffs shortly after that.

It was only when Hagrid came in that the fight ended. As the Weasley-Potter-Granger troupe left the store, Ginny saw her mother pick up a small black diary from the floor. Then she saw Taranau waving his booklist at her. She put her own in his hand. "We didn't get anything." She whispered as they passed.

* * *

That evening, after all of Ginny's new books had been delivered by Eires, Alexander and Auradain, since Taranau and Ginny had decided to sleep separately that night after Mrs Weasley almost caught Ginny sneaking back into the Burrow the morning before, Ginny's mother came into her room. She was holding the little black diary. "I found this wonderful diary today and I thought that you'd like it." She put the diary down on Ginny's desk, tapped the diary twice with her hand looked at Ginny with… was that guilt… before she turned and left.

Ginny picked up the diary, besides the three golden letters inscribed on the inside of the cover it seemed to be entirely unmarked and looked rather innocent, she supposed her mother must have simply been feeling guilty about ignoring her for the last few years. It was likely that the diary was some form of reparation. Ginny pulled out some ink and a quill. She began to write.

 _Dear Diary,_

 _My name is Ginevra Weasley but I prefer to be called Ginny._

She paused for a moment, thinking of what to write. When she'd thought of something she saw that the words that she'd written had been replaced.

 _Hello Ginny,_

 _My name is Tom Riddle. Would you like to be my friend?_

She was surprised. This diary wrote back! Besides Taranau she had no friends and despite her shared pranking experiences with the twins her brothers rarely had time for her and she was worried that she might not make any new friends at Hogwarts, this would be a good way to get the ball rolling. She felt a twinge of guilt as Taranau too had few friends, besides herself and two rather amiable professors his closest human friends were the twins who could have been considered rather friendly competitors, but she then decided that she'd introduce Tom to Taranau and then they could all be friends.

 _Hello Tom,_

 _I'd like to be your friend._

Then she felt it. It was worse than hundred headaches all at once. She felt her head was splitting into a thousand pieces, as if she were drowning, as if she were burning, as if someone was driving hot knives into her flesh. And then it stopped.

 _'_ _You're mine now Ginevra_.' A voice filled Ginny's head and sent a chill down her spine. ' _You can't ever tell anyone about me now. I know everything that you know. I know everything you've ever done, said, thought, heard and seen. I can make your body do anything I want it to.'_

To prove it he made her open her window and climb up onto the ledge. She could hear his voice in his mind, even over the rain that was pouring down on the other side of the window frame. ' _I could make you jump.'_ Ginny was fighting as hard as she could. He led her back to her bed again. The diary had closed. ' _Go to sleep now my foolish little Ginevra.'_

She fell asleep with tears pouring onto her bed.

* * *

Albus Dumbledore was pleased. All of his plans were falling back into place again. Molly Weasley, one of his most faithful followers, had just sent him a message by floo; she'd given young Miss Weasley Tom's diary and Albus had given her their customary 50 galleons. Albus was certain Tom would have captured the foolish girl's mind by now.

He would soon be rid of one more problem.


	18. Companions In Isolation

Disclaimer: In chapter one.

AN: Please review.

Taranau was awoken suddenly. Ginny's body wasn't pressed against his anymore. It wasn't yet sunrise. He clambered from his bed. Just as he ran out of the room, Ginny left the kitchen and walked into the corridor. Taranau's arms came to wrap around her. He'd seen her face, it was streaked by tears and her eyes were puffy and filled with a deep torment. Her head rested on his chest. "What's wrong my love?" He whispered to her. Ginny's mouth opened then she suddenly winced.

"I can't tell you. I'm sorry Taranau. Please don't be angry."

"Do you want to sleep at the Burrow without me?" Taranau's voice was filled with insecurity. Ginny, however, misunderstood him. Her head pulled away from him and she looked at him with a fearful expression.

"No! Please don't make me leave. Please I'm sorry that I can't tell you. Please don't send me away, its worse without you!" Ginny all but shouted.

Taranau drew her back to him and rubbed her back. He placed a soft kiss on the top of her head. "What's worse Ginny? Its ok that you can't tell me, I just want to help."

"I can't sleep properly Taranau. I keep having nightmares and they won't go away."

"I'll look after you Ginny. Come back to bed." He met her eyes. "You're always safe with me." Taranau led her into their room. They didn't see Carrog and Cysged standing in a doorway further down the corridor.

Three days later and Taranau had perfected the art of detecting Ginny's nightmares. Whenever a nightmare struck her, he would wake up and try to comfort her. If the nightmare was milder she'd stay asleep but holding his arm tight to her chest with both of her arms wrapped around it. The worst nightmares would wake her in a cold sweat, she'd be embarrassed to find Taranau already awake and soothing her but he'd just hold her and calm her. When she was settled again he'd dash into the kitchen and bring back a glass of water, before reminding her again that she would always be safe with him.

That night however, when he and Ginny were falling asleep, Alexander and Auradain perched besides Eires and started to sing a soft lullaby. Ginny didn't have a single nightmare the whole night.

In the morning Cysged told them that Auradain's brother, Cannos, would be staying in the Forbidden Forest at Hogwarts. Carrog told them about a secret room that had been his and Cysged's room during their time at Hogwarts, Cassie had made it for them, it could become anything that the user needed and could be found on the seventh floor.

Ginny had discovered that whenever she and Taranau were touching, Tom wouldn't whisper to her however, even then, she was still unable to tell Taranau about Tom.

The first of September arrived quickly amidst Taranau's ministrations and phoenix lullabies, Cysged had told Ginny that her favourite lullaby was actually a tale about the eve of an ancient battle between phoenixes and hoyls. Due to both creatures being capable of returning from the land of the dead, the battle had lasted for centuries only ending with the birth of the first augurey born to a phoenix and hoyl during the final night of the battle.

Ginny knew that even with the phoenix presence at night, Taranau was still worried about her and that he knew that something was till upsetting her. Unfortunately they were separated by the activities of the day.

Ginny and the other Weasleys arrived as the clock reached five minutes to eleven and by the time Ginny was on the train, it was already moving. She walked along the corridor looking for Taranau. Tom began to torment her. He had sensed that she was away from whatever was protecting her from him. _"He won't love you when he discovers that you gave yourself to me so easily. He won't love you when he finds out what you've been keeping from him. At Hogwarts I'll have even more power over you for I'm the Heir of Slytherin and Hogwarts is my home, Hogwarts will make me stronger. I can make you kill him. I will make you kill, not him first but you'll see as you kill someone here and someone there how we shall get closer and closer to his death. Then by your hand he shall die."_

Ginny dove into the first empty toilets that she came across and broke down into tears. She couldn't fight Tom alone.

Taranau was worried. Ginny hadn't come to the compartment that he was in yet. He got up and went to find her. After a while he came across a toilet from which the sound of crying was coming. It was Ginny. "Ginny are you in there? Has something happened? Do you need help?" He called through the door.

At the sound of Taranau's voice Tom's presence faded into the back of her mind. Ginny went to the sink to wash her face. "I'm ok Taranau. Just wait a moment please." Then, when she'd dried her face, she came out. Taranau could see, in her eyes, evidence that she'd just been crying.

"Did someone hurt you?" he asked her.

"There isn't anything that can be done about it. I just want to rest. Please Taranau." Taranau only sighed in response before he pulled her into his arms. A hand came to rest on her upper back while the other rubbed her arm, he planted a soft kiss on her hair.

"I just want to help you Ginny." He whispered into her ear. She nodded into him.

"I know. Together they wandered back to the compartment that Taranau had claimed. Ginny laid across the seat with her face resting peacefully against his stomach and fell asleep to his hand running through her hair. He kissed her sleeping lips and leant back hoping that some way of helping Ginny would come to him.

The Hogwarts Express pulled into Hogsmeade Station just as Taranau had an idea. If his presence calmed her and helped her then he'd just have to make sure that he was always with her. When the train came to a halt, Ginny's eyes opened.

Taranau bent down and captured her lips with his own. "I don't know what's wrong but I want to help. When I'm with you it feels better, right?" Ginny nodded, her face held a confused expression. "Then I'll always be with you." And with that he drew a knife and cut the palm of his hand and then he gently cut her palm. He then put their palms together.

"I'm with you always, Ginny. You're always safe with me. And now you're always with me and I'm always with you." Her eyes grew wide and tears leaked from them. When Taranau unclasped their hands the cuts had healed. Ginny pushed upwards and gave him a fierce and passionate kiss.

Together they left the train. Then Ginny went to join the rest of the first years. She dreaded that Tom would start to torment her again at any moment. But Tom was silent. He didn't pull her body from within, he didn't whisper to her or throw memories before her. A smile graced Ginny's features, Taranau was riding to the castle with the carriages and Taranau was standing beside her. Tom was powerless with Taranau within her.

Ginny was in a boat alone, just as Taranau had been. She looked upon Hogwarts Castle for the first time. It was a magnificent sight, throwing light up into the night sky. Its purple tile roofs cast eerie shadows onto the towers that watched over the new students. Ginny soon found herself entering the Great Hall.

The ceiling showed a clear and star-filled night sky. The Sorting Hat sang his song and Professor McGonagall began to call for the first years to be sorted. A small and clearly excitable boy, Colin Creevey, found his way into Gryffindor and then; much later, on account of her surname beginning with a 'W', the name being called was "Weasley, Ginevra."

She had disliked being called Ginevra before, but now, after it had become Tom's chosen name for her, she hated it. Ginny sat on the stool while the Sorting Hat sat on her head. The Hat was silent for a few moments before sighing into her ear. She shivered slightly, it was too similar to Tom. "Could you let me in please?" It whispered into her ear.

Ginny was surprised until she realised that Taranau's presence must have been keeping the Sorting Hat out. She knew that intent meant a lot when it came to magic but wondered how simply meaning to help her could have made what they did on the train work so effectively. Ginny shook her head before she remembered that the other students were watching. "I'd like to be a Gryffindor please. Taranau is in Gryffindor and I won't ever let anyone part us. We'll always be together."

The Sorting Hat didn't speak. It continued to not speak for a long time.

"Gryffindor!" was eventually shouted into the Great Hall. Ginny's sorting, similarly to Taranau's, had taken almost half an hour.

Ginny went to sit beside Taranau at the Gryffindor table but not before receiving a pair of tight hugs from Fred and George. Ronald and Percy had deemed it to be below them to hug her in front of everyone.

The headmaster stood and began to speak. He introduced Professor Lockhart as the new Defence Against the Darks Art professor. Then the feast began. Taranau's left hand rested on Ginny's knee for the whole feast and they talked together quietly. Soon the feast was over and the first years were being directed to their dorms. Taranau and Ginny snuck off to the room that Carrog had told them about. The room took on the form of their bedroom at the Hearth with a large wooden pale green bed and gentle red walls. A fireplace sat in the centre of the wall opposite the bed and several bookcases rested where the door had been. The room exuded a sense of warmth and comfort.

As they curled up together, a golden light shimmered at the foot of their bed. Both of their trunks appeared where the light was before it vanished leaving only the light of the embers in the fireplace to illuminate the room. Shortly afterwards Cannos flamed into the room and perched next to the large window of the room on a perch beside Eires. He started to sing a soft lullaby.

He would ensure that his sister's chicks had a wonderful rest that night.

* * *

Albus was overjoyed. Miss Granger had reported that Miss Weasley had seemed to be tormented on the train and had suddenly rushed into the toilets. This, it could be assumed, clearly showed that Miss Weasley was already under Tom's influence. He expected that she'd attack by Halloween, in fact, with Tom it was more likely that she'd attack on Halloween, Tom had always had an interest in that particular night's effects on dark magic.

All that Albus had to do was arrange for Edward to capture and defeat her such that he'd be the saviour of the children of the wizarding world and that Miss Weasley would not escape Azkaban, it would also have to happen in such a way that it ensured Edward's unwavering loyalty to him. It would be easy to have Miss Weasley removed from her family and banished to Azkaban after that, despite the fact that her family had become increasingly hesitant over this particular detail in his plans to rid the world of darkness.

It was a shame that even the lightest of families occasionally had rotten eggs.


	19. Tests and Tribulations

Disclaimer: In chapter one.

AN: Please review.

The next morning Taranau and Ginny sat down at the Gryffindor table. For the entire meal they were touching each other in some way, it wasn't until they had finished eating and Minerva was handing them their timetables that they realised this fact.

"Mister Lloyd, Miss Weasley, must I ask that you keep both hands above the table when you eat or do you think that you can control yourselves?" Minerva asked them. She chuckled as she walked away, Taranau and Ginny had looked at each other and then their hands before looking back at her with surprised expressions written on their faces.

"Sorry Ginny. I didn't mean to put my hand there, I didn't even notice."

"You don't have to apologise Taranau, my hand's still on your leg."

They soon parted after breakfast and a few inquisitive glances from the twins, who they were sure would prank them soon since they had yet to get Taranau in any pranks. Ginny had to attend Charms class with her year and Taranau would be getting his first taste of Professor Lockhart's class.

Professor Flitwick called roll. He then handed each student a test, it was the same test on fundamental charms that Taranau had been given the year before. Ginny answered every question perfectly and in her own words, which differed very little from Taranau's when he'd taken the test a year prior. Professor Flitwick had noticed that Miss Weasley and Mister Lloyd had been sat together this morning; and that their relationship was somewhat more than friends, they must have met over the summer he decided since he knew that the Weasley twins were rather friendly with Mister Lloyd. He was filled with joy to find that he'd have such wonderful students two years in a row and envy that once again the student had become a member of Gryffindor house.

Defence against the Dark Arts, however, had some subtle differences. After calling roll, Lockhart did give out a test. It was not on fundamental defence however, or in fact any type of defence, it was about Lockhart himself. Taranau looked up. Both Edward and Ronald were looking at each other aghast. For once Taranau agreed with them, this was a terrible quiz. Granger meanwhile evidently took the quiz at face value as she started to blaze through it.

Lockhart then collected all of the quizzes in, "My, where is Miss Granger?" Granger's hand shot up into the air. "Well done, full marks, this is excellent, although it seems some of the rest of you need to brush up on your reading." Granger shot a smug grin at Taranau. "Mister Lloyd. Where are you?" Taranau raised his hand. He was unsure of how the professor would take him crossing out all of the questions and replacing them with actual defence question before then answering those.

Professor Lockhart hmmed before he turned around and walked back to the front of the classroom. "Now, be warned. It is my job to arm you against the foulest creatures known to wizard-kind." Lockhart pulled a cage with a cloth draped over it from under his desk. "You may find yourself facing your worst fears in this room. Know only that no harm will befall you whilst I am here. I must ask you not to scream. It might provoke them!" He then yanked the cloth from the cage.

Seamus laughed, not even Lockhart could dramatize enough to make it seem like he had screamed in fear. "Laugh if you will Mister Finnegan, Pixies are tricky little blighters. Let's see what you make of them!" and with that he released the cage door allowing the blue pixies to flood the room.

"Come on they're only pixies!" Lockhart shouted. Taranau was in amazement. This idiot's classroom was a warzone and he was completely oblivious to it. Neville was already hanging from the chandelier and black ink covered Dean Thomas' hair. Lockhart drew his wand. Taranau knew that this could only get worse. "Peskipiksi Pesternomi!" Lockhart shouted. A pixie grabbed his wand and threw it out of the already shattered window and nothing happened, other than the continued destruction of the classroom.

Taranau stood from his seat. He put out both arms. "Sit down! Shut up!" The pixies flocked to him and sat upon his outstretched arms in absolute silence. Everyone looked at him in shock.

"Er, well done Mister Lloyd. It's a good thing that spell I did made the pixies easier to command. If I hadn't, well, I dread to think what those pixies would have done to you."

Taranau ignored Lockhart. He pushed the door open with his foot. He hurried through the corridors as he definitely didn't want the bell to ring while he was balancing a dozen excitable pixies. Just as he stepped out of the front doors of Hogwarts, the bell rang and students started to flood the corridors. Taranau was glad that he'd managed to avoid being caught in the rush. "Get going then, go play in the gardens, there'll be tonnes of bugs there." The pixie flock fluttered away.

* * *

Ginny arrived at her defence class to find it in ruins. She hoped that Taranau hadn't been hurt by whatever had wrecked the room. Once the house elves had tidied the room, Lockhart began to call roll. He then gave them a test, which was the same as the one Taranau had sat. Ginny sighed. Hopefully practice would make Lockhart into a decent professor.

Taranau was waiting outside of her classroom when she left. She checked him over. "What's wrong Ginny?"

"Something wrecked the classroom during your lesson. I saw the state of the room." A wide grin stretched across Taranau's face.

"Oh that, well Lockhart brought a chimera to class." Taranau told her. Ginny's face shot up to look at his. She slapped his chest.

"Prat." Taranau just laughed and took her hand. At lunch they noticed Flitwick taking about Ginny. They chose to ignore the professors' conversation. Unfortunately, Severus had not been ignoring them. They both jumped when he spoke from behind them.

"Professor McGonagall told me that the two of you were incapable of keeping your hands to yourselves at breakfast. She ought to have punished you then. Both of you have detention with me, tonight and tomorrow night, bring your potions equipment. Professor McGonagall would like to speak with you both on Saturday." Then he spun around and walked back to the high table. They both looked at their hands.

"I didn't even notice." They said together. They looked at each other and laughed. Unfortunately the twins had been sat opposite them.

"Looks like ickle Gin-Gin's already got herself a boyfriend on her first day Gred." _"Right you are Forge, isn't it adorable?"_ They proceeded to squeeze Taranau's cheeks. He batted their hands away. "Do you think they've kissed yet Gred?" _"That would be absolutely scandalous Forge."_ Fred then leant forward and whispered, _"Go on, give her a big sloppy kiss."_ George pulled Angelina closer and kissed her as a demonstration. Taranau and Ginny went bright red and left the table to get their books for the afternoon.

"Do you think that means they approve?" Ginny just raised an eyebrow in response. Soon Ginny had to go to transfiguration and Taranau went to double potions. While Taranau was busy brewing twenty house points, which were given to Slytherin and as per usual eventually found their way to Gryffindor, worth of sleeping draughts, Ginny sat in the seat by the window in her transfiguration classroom.

She was alone in the room except for a small brown tabby. It was lounging on the desk in the path of a sunbeam. Ginny grinned, either Professor McGonagall had taken Taranau's advice, and was being more cat-like, or she had gotten an actual cat and was trying to trick her.

Now how to determine which one it was. Ginny reached into her bag and pulled out an inkwell. She knocked it off of the end of her desk. "Oh I'm sorry professor!" She then ducked under the desk to clean up the ink. She'd noticed that the cat looked at her when the inkwell smashed and not at the broken inkwell. It was a very human thing to look at the cause of the noise rather than at the source of it.

When Ginny had finished cleaning up the ink the first students were reaching the door. "I know that's really you Professor. An actual cat would have looked at the source of the noise, not at the cause of it."

Professor McGonagall leapt from the desk and took on human form. "An astute observation, Miss Weasley. I suppose that'll be five house points to Gryffindor."

"Were you trying to trick me?"

"I had to make sure that you had some skill of your own in this subject, skill more than simply listening to Mister Lloyd before your lesson, of course." The stern witch replied. Ginny nodded, she had thought as much.

The lesson continued from there. They were asked to transfigure matches into needles. By the end of the lesson, Ginny had made golden needles and she was placing them amongst her other needles when Professor McGonagall appeared behind her. She asked Ginny if Professor Snape had told her to come to visit her that Saturday. Happy with the answer that she got, the transfiguration professor awarded Ginny seven house points. The bell rang.

Ginny met Taranau in the entrance hall. When they sat to eat Ginny could see the concentration on Taranau's face. His hands and arms were moving with resolute precision. Seeing that the twins were at the far end of the table, she decided to emulate him. The hall was almost empty before they'd even half finished their food. Ginny had already had to subdue her rebellious hands what seemed like a hundred times.

Taranau sighed and leaned over and gave her a kiss on the cheek. Ginny's concentration melted. Her hand placed itself firmly on Taranau's thigh and his hand clasped her knee. They ate and were finished in a few minutes. Minerva had been watching them eat. When they got up she went to her office.

In her personal quarters behind the office there was a framed map of the school. It had the names and locations of all of her Gryffindors on it. She watched as the footprints marked Ginevra and Taranau walked up to the seventh floor and then disappeared. She'd have to talk about this with them on Saturday.

* * *

Albus Dumbledore was a happy man. He'd heard from Minerva and Filius that Miss Weasley was performing at an exceptional standard. This must mean that Tom had taken over completely. His magical power and knowledge was the only explanation for her prowess, her displays of accidental magic as a child had all been rather pathetic after all. It would also explain why he'd not seen any external signs of torment. Even better was the fact that she'd befriended Mister Lloyd. When Miss Weasley was proven to be the one who opened the Chamber of Secrets then Albus could have Mister Lloyd punished as her accomplice.

Yes, everything was falling into place nicely.


	20. Ashes To Ashes

Disclaimer: In chapter one.

AN: Please review.

Saturday came quickly. Taranau and Ginny arrived at Minerva's office. Minerva welcomed them into the room and offered them both biscuits.

"Now, Miss Weasley, are you aware of the extra-curricular study that Taranau does with me on a Saturday?"

"You teach him how to do the animagus transformation." Ginny replied.

"Indeed. I'd like to offer you the chance to study this subject as well." Minerva told her.

"Yes please Professor."

"Excellent, you'll need these books and the recipe for the revealer potion is in this one, you'll have to brew it." She gave Ginny the same books that she had given to Taranau and indicated the top one.

"I already have those books and I've had a dose of the potion as well." Ginny replied. The stern witch frowned. She glanced at Taranau. He appeared to be guilty of attempting to teach the topic.

"I must impress upon you how dangerous this transformation can be. It would be foolish to attempt it without me until you've mastered it." Both Ginny and Taranau went red. "Please tell me that you haven't attempted to transform." Suddenly a pair of panthers stood before her, gently nuzzling each other. Minerva put a hand to the bridge of her nose. "Is there a reason that you said that you wanted to study this topic, other than wasting my time?"

The panthers returned to human form. "Of course Professor, see we both have more than one form. The books didn't have anything about how to deal with that."

Minerva was shocked. "Neither do I Miss Weasley." Ginny and Taranau looked at each other. "However, I shall continue to be here on Saturdays, if either of you should wish to learn about anything, have any problems or would simply like to have a talk with me, then my door is always open. I shall endeavour to discover whatever I can about the transformation for those with multiple forms. In the meantime, however, there is nothing more I can offer you on the subject. I do not consider you to have fully mastered your animagus transformation and thus consider you to still be my students in this matter so you will not need to register with the ministry as of yet."

Neither Ginny nor Taranau had a response and they started to get up.

"There is another matter that I would like to discuss." Taranau and Ginny both sat back down. "Or rather a few matters, firstly Severus has told me that he considers you both to be honorary members of the Slytherin House. I assume, therefore, that you are both aiding him in the production of potions." They both nodded. "Good. He has told me that, as the hospital wing's stores are nearly full; despite a seemingly constant stream of students in need of potions, he shall be selling surplus potions to St Mungo's Hospital. You shall each receive three quarters of the profit of all potions that you brew."

After they nodded to show that they found the situation was acceptable Minerva continued. "Secondly, I have noticed that, although both Severus and I have mentioned this to you, you both display an unusual level of public affection and often are unusually unaware of such. I shall not tell you that it is in anyway wrong to be holding hands or kissing or showing your affection for one another at the table. However, I am worried that your lack of awareness may result in certain boundaries being crossed without you realising."

"This brings me to my third matter. I have discovered that neither of you are sleeping in Gryffindor Tower. I do not know where you are sleeping, or indeed whether you are sharing a room, and I do not ask for that information. I will however ask that you both think through everything that you might be doing. You are both young, it would not do for you to cause any future opportunities to be closed to you at your age. I am placing a great deal of trust in you, do not prove that trust to be misplaced."

"We won't Professor." Taranau and Ginny both intoned, their faces a bright red at having been caught. Minerva nodded. The two children left the room with their hands entwined.

* * *

That night as Ginny slipped into bed, Taranau paused in the bathroom doorway. "What's wrong?" Ginny asked him.

"Minerva said that she trusted us." He looked guilty.

"She does trust us Taranau, and we won't be betraying that trust by sharing a bed. We shared a bed in the Hearth. If Cysged and Carrog were ok with it then surely Minerva would be too." She had climbed out of bed and was holding Taranau's head in her hands.

Taranau nodded into her hands before ducking down and kissing her softly. He then picked her up and carried her to their bed. She quickly wrapped herself around him and they fell asleep to a phoenix lullaby.

* * *

Taranau found himself in a space. It was entirely flat and entirely empty and entirely white. He took a step forward. A hand clasped onto his shoulder. Taranau turned around. A boy stood before him. He was roughly sixteen years old and he wore a Hogwarts uniform, Slytherin.

"Who are you?" Taranau asked.

 _"_ _Hasn't little Ginevra told you? Was she so ashamed that she never told you?"_ The boy laughed. _"I suppose she never loved you as much as I thought she did. Wouldn't you agree, Harry Potter?"_ Taranau's expression was filled with surprise. _"Oh, yes, she told me all about you. She told me all of your secrets. Hasn't she told you about me? I'm sure she remembers me. Ask her. Ask her about her friend, her friend Tom Riddle. She's been keeping secrets from you and giving out all of yours."_

The boy disappeared. Taranau woke. The sun had yet to rise. Ginny wasn't wrapped around him anymore, she was curled into a ball. Grafan was gone.

Taranau reached out for Ginny and shook her awake. Her eyes shot open, they were filled with tears. "What's wrong?"

She shook her head. "Can't tell you." She whispered. Taranau remembered his dream. _"She's been keeping secrets from you."_

"Ginny? Who's Tom Riddle?" Taranau asked. She flinched so hard that she fell from the bed. She started to scream. Taranau was beside her in moments. He held her body in his arms. Her body was flailing about as she screamed. Then suddenly it stopped.

Her eyes opened again. She was whimpering quietly against his chest. "How did you find out about Tom?" She whispered.

"A dream. Just now." She glanced up at him.

"I couldn't tell you. I swear. I would have if I could've but I couldn't. He did something to me. I couldn't say anything. I swear. Please believe me Taranau. Please." Tears rand down her face.

Taranau kissed her on the tip of her nose and Ginny snuggled closer into his body. "I believe you, I'm sorry for ever doubting you, my love." He told her softly. Ginny just held him tighter. They sat entwined leaning against the side of the bed until dawn had passed and the sun had started to rise. Cannos didn't return.

Taranau picked up Ginny, she was still wearing her nightgown and he carried her down to the hospital wing. She only protested weakly when he laid her in one of the beds and woke Madam Pomfrey. She bustled over and ran various diagnostic charms on the young girl. "There appears to be some sort of binding curse on Miss Weasley. It would seem that someone has been possessing Miss Weasley recently. There is also a form of blood magic but I have no idea what it is meant to do. Without knowing who was possessing Miss Weasley and how, there is very little I can do."

Ginny pulled on Taranau's elbow. "Diary, in my trunk." She whispered. He could see that she was getting weaker. He ran from the hospital wing. A golden light shone from the walls, it seemed to be running alongside him and as it travelled all of the staircases lined up perfectly to allow Taranau to get to the seventh floor. The door of their room was already open. A golden light blazed out of the room and Ginny's trunk was flung from the room and it opened.

There on the top was a small black diary. Taranau grabbed it and started to run back to the hospital wing. His hand started to hurt. It felt like he was holding Quirrel again. The golden light flooded the grand staircase and the stairs became slopes. Taranau slid to the bottom and ran into the hospital wing.

Ginny was very pale. He gave Madam Pomfrey the diary and took Ginny's hand. "Mister Lloyd. What on earth do you expect me to do with this?" The diary had become a gloopy mess on the way down. Taranau looked at his hands. He had blisters on the hand that had been holding the diary. He snatched the diary from Madam Pomfrey.

The pain returned with a vengeance. It felt as if he was aflame. Taranau took Ginny's hand with his spare hand. A soft golden light shone from the floor beneath him. Taranau could feel the pain being driven away by the two way blood protection that he and Ginny had. He was surprised by the cooling presence below him. Suddenly the diary burst into flames. Ginny awoke. The diary became ash.

"Taranau!" Ginny's weakened voice called out.

Blackness overtook him.


	21. The Birth Of Death

Disclaimer: In chapter one.

AN: Please review.

"It was definitely blood magic?"

"Yes headmaster, I'm certain."

"The trial is tomorrow, for both of them. Will you be testifying?"

"Of course."

Taranau's eyes opened. He was in the hospital wing, on one of the beds. He could see Ginny on another bed. Her head was turned towards him. She was wrapped in chains. She was looking better than she had been when he collapsed. Her eyes met his. She smiled slightly, then he noticed that he too was chained.

Madam Pomfrey appeared between them and pulled a divider into place. "Tomorrow you will both be on trial before the wizengamot, you Mister Lloyd for possessing Miss Weasley and for the illegal use of blood magic, and you Miss Weasley for the illegal use of blood magic as well as intent to murder. Your family has officially disowned you. Your family, Mister Lloyd, is at the moment unaware of the charges levelled against you." She then shut the divider so that they couldn't see each other.

After she left, Taranau could hear Ginny crying quietly. He started to whisper comfort to her but his words had little effect. He hoped Cannos returned soon and told Carrog and Cysged what had happened.

* * *

The next morning, ten aurors came and escorted them both, still chained, to the Winged Boar Gates. A young girl appeared just as they were leaving. She was made of golden light and shone very dimly. Black wisps swirled within the gemstone at the peak of the gate's arch. None of the aurors saw her nor did their prisoners. She waved her hand at the aurors. Nothing happened.

The aurors and the prisoners portkeyed away to courtroom ten. The girl fell to her knees, her face contorted into a silent scream. Then she faded away.

* * *

The entire Wizengamot was in attendance.

The Minister of Magic, a rather toad-like woman and a severe looking woman with a monocle were sat in front of the rest of the Wizengamot. There was a stone chair facing the ranks of elderly wizards and witches. Chains lay about it. The aurors directed Ginny to the chair and the chains sprung to life. They held her tighter than the chains that she'd had to sleep in the night before. Taranau was led to a separate room behind the chair. He couldn't see or hear the proceedings within the courtroom.

Ginny was terrified. She had no idea what could happen at the trial but she knew that the charge of intent to murder would certainly mean Azkaban.

"Trial of the twelfth of September, the charges are the illegal use of blood magic and intent to murder, the accused is Miss Ginevra Molly formerly Weasley, former resident of The Burrow, Ottery St. Catchpole, Devon. Interrogators: Cornelius Oswald Fudge, Minister for Magic; Amelia Susan Bones, Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement; Delores Jane Umbridge, Senior Undersecretary to the Minister. Court Scribe: Andrew Moss. Lead Prosecutor: Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore." The Minister started the proceedings.

"You are Ginevra Molly formerly Weasley and your former residence was The Burrow, Ottery St. Catchpole, Devon?" He asked her. Ginny nodded.

"You are aware that blood magic, of all forms, is highly regulated and only legal within the Gringotts building under Goblin supervision?" Ginny shook her head. The Minister frowned. "Ignorance of the law is not an excuse for breaking it. Did you and Mister Lloyd perform blood magic together?" Ginny didn't respond. She shook her head again. There hadn't been any magic involved on the train.

Albus Dumbledore stood. "If I may, I would like to ask for Madam Pomfrey to be questioned on this matter." The Minister nodded. Madam Pomfrey entered the courtroom.

"It is our understanding that you believe that Miss Ginevra has performed blood magic. Do you have any evidence of this?" Amelia Bones asked her.

"Yes I do, if I could be permitted to perform magic I can show a diagnostic charm that I used on Miss Ginevra and this charm shows that she has used blood magic." At the Minister's approval she performed the charm. "This crimson area of Miss Ginevra, her hand and most of her forearm, has traces of blood magic all over it."

A healer from St. Mungo's was summoned to verify the charm's results. He declared that Ginny had to have performed blood magic for the charm to show her hand in such a way. After both healers left the room, the Minister continued.

On the matter of intent to murder, the evidence provided is this melted diary cover and the ashes held within it. Would the Lead Prosecutor please explain?"

"Of course Minister. This diary belonged to a student of many decades ago called Tom Marvolo Riddle. This boy grew up to become Lord Voldemort. After I discovered this diary, I found powerful dark magics in it. The diary also once contained a secret that is now entirely undeterminable due to it having melted, the secret is likely to have contained the location of the Chamber of Secrets. I am aware of one occasion on which Miss Ginevra opened the Chamber while at Hogwarts this year. It is my belief that she intended to follow in Salazar Slytherin's footsteps and kill the muggleborn population at the school."

Albus Dumbledore sat down. Ginny was shocked, how could the headmaster have known about Tom and about what he had wanted her to do? Unless…

"I believe that the evidence is damning for both charges. Are there any further questions?" Both other interrogators shook their heads. Ginny realised that she hadn't had a chance to speak in her own defence and that the trial was almost over. She tried to deny the charges but found that her mouth wouldn't open. In her panic she missed the headmaster's smirk. "I call for a vote. All those that find Miss Ginevra guilty." All hands rose. "Those that find her innocent." No hands were in the air. "I declare Miss Ginevra guilty and sentence her to life imprisonment in Azkaban Prison."

The chains of the chair unwrapped and two dementors entered the room. Ginny screamed. Then the dementors pulled her from the room by her arms.

* * *

Taranau felt that he had been stood against the wall, draped in chains, when he heard Ginny scream. He dove for the door. The aurors stunned him before he reached it.

He awoke in the stone chair in the courtroom.

A man in a black cloak with a violet strip running diagonally across his front entered the room silently and sat amongst the reporters and other onlookers.

"You are aware that blood magic is regulated and thus is only legal within the confines of the Gringotts building and only under Goblin supervision?" Taranau shook his head. The Minister frowned again. "Ignorance of the law is not an acceptable excuse for breaking it. Did you perform blood magic?" Taranau knew Ginny must have been found guilty. She wouldn't have screamed otherwise. He only hoped that they'd have the same punishment so as to be together. The man in the black cloak stood up.

"I admit to performing a protective blood magic spell." Taranau told the court. The Minister nodded.

Albus Dumbledore stood. "On the matter of possession I believe that Mister Lloyd used the blood magic that he performed on Miss Ginevra to possess her. He wished to hide the blood magic from us. It was good chance that he has been caught." The Minister nodded.

He stood. "I sentence Mister Lloyd to life imprisonment in Azkaban Prison." A camera flashed as a pair of dementors swept forward. The man in the black cloak strode out of the room. Taranau did not resist as the dementors drew him from the chair. He was going to Ginny, hopefully Carrog and Cysged could rescue them.

* * *

"Chief Warlock, sir!" A voice came from behind him. He spun about on the spot. The man before him was dressed in a black cloak and had a single violet strip running diagonally across his front. A single white raven marked his shoulder. He was recognisably an Unspeakable.

"Yes? What can I do for you?" Albus' voice echoed in the now empty corridor outside of courtroom ten.

"We would like to know about Harry James Potter. He was due to arrive at your school the year previous. Yet he has yet to arrive." The voice was cold, emotionless.

"He has vanished, his guardians all passed away several years ago to a very severe illness and he was not there when I came to visit him. It was a great shame."

The Unspeakable nodded. "And of Taranau Lloyd? This boy meets all predictions of what Harry Potter may have grown to become."

"Taranau Lloyd? He is not Harry Potter, of that I can assure you. The wards at Hogwarts would alert me to a student who attempted to attend under a false name."

The Unspeakable nodded again. "You have been most informative." The Unspeakable turned on the spot and started to walk towards the Department of Mysteries and the chamber in which they studied the Law-writers from afar.

"Why do you ask?" Albus called after the Unspeakable. No reply came until the Unspeakable opened the door at the far end of the hallway.

"You are wrong."

* * *

Minerva McGonagall was the only member of staff to have ever been to the Hearth and so it was her task to inform Mister Lloyd's parents of what had happened. She apparated to the path in front of the house. She was amazed by what she saw. Men in black armour rushed about around as if they were a storm whipping about the house. The sky was filled by phoenixes and by phoenix fire such that the flames rivalled the sun in brightness as they brought various cargoes, metal and tools, timber and blades, arrows and potions. Entire herds of centaurs were hauling felled trees into the open grass beside the house and elves, which she had thought to be creatures of only myth, carried arms and armour into the cottage.

In the midst of it all the cottage looked the same as always; strong, stable and peaceful. Its log walls were still in perfect condition and it seemed like the roof had been freshly painted a soft red.

Then suddenly she found herself on the ground. Something heavy had placed a foot on her back.

"Let her up Glaza." She recognised the voice as Carrog, from when she introduced Mister Lloyd to magic. When she stood and had stretched her now sore body, she noticed that were more wolves there than men. Most were stood just within the treeline and half a dozen were behind her with an exceptionally large brownish wolf directly behind her.

A phoenix dove at her and suddenly a net of fire surrounded her, not touching her at all. She had enough space to take a step back or forwards. "You can't perform magic while within that net, the flames separate you from the ambient magic in the world, and how they do it is a secret that their High Court has yet to see fit to allow us to learn. You will find that magical artefacts too can't function in there. Why have you come here Professor McGonagall?"

She looked about herself, still in awe. She'd discovered for herself that she couldn't apparate. "I've been sent to tell you that your son was found guilty of illegally performing blood magic and of possessing another student. He's been sentenced to twenty years in Azkaban Prison." Carrog nodded.

"You are the third to tell us of this. The Swedes have answered. They've already taken to wing." Cysged's voice came from behind.

Carrog smirked. "I hope Azkaban Prison isn't very important, Professor, because I don't expect that it'll be around for too much longer." He turned around and went back to his work, armouring various wolves. He seemed to have a method for choosing which ones to armour, Minerva couldn't see why some were being armoured and others weren't.

Cysged came up beside her. "You shall not communicate that which you have learnt here today to anyone. As I say it, I mean it. As I mean it, I say it. So mote it be." A breeze howled through the forest and a distinct hint of powerful magic blew around them. It was unlike any magic that she had felt before. The younger woman went to the pile of fallen trees and started to move the logs into an odd shape. It resembled a very small house; someone could stand in it, just about, and it could fit a dozen people, six on each side of a suspended log with a metal ram's head on the end.

The phoenix above her flamed away and was lost in the confusion of flame overhead. The wolves behind her blended into the forest again. She apparated to the Winged Boar Gates at Hogwarts and went to her office, only offering the gemstone atop the Gates a cursory glance. The gemstone still shone very dimly and cracks had begun to appear around the edges of its seat. Cysged had bound her in such a way that she simply couldn't even try to tell anyone of the impending attack on Azkaban.

* * *

An alarm rung out in the Department of Mysteries. Gold cursive script wrote itself across a wall in a large room deep in the heart of the department. 'Minerva McGonagall' had just appeared on the wall. This was the third new name on the wall in a decade. The Law-writers had surely returned to the wizarding world.

* * *

Albus Dumbledore returned to his office confused. Miss Ginevra and Mister Lloyd had both been sent to Azkaban and they wouldn't be capable of interfering with his plans and wouldn't lead Edward astray. Albus knew exactly what Prewitt would do to capture their man. He didn't pause to consider the possibility that Miss Ginevra's preferred man may not have been Edward. Why wouldn't he be, even the Minister's wife probably wanted to be seen on the boy's arm when he grew up. Although, if rumours were to be believed, she likely wouldn't mind him as he was.

Yet the Unspeakable had disturbed him. What was he wrong about? Could it be possible that Mister Lloyd was the missing Potter boy? If he was then how had it gone unnoticed all of this time, he had a map of his own which informed him of the locations of all students and it had steadfastly named Mister Lloyd as 'Taranau Lloyd'. He would visit the boy the next day in Azkaban to question him, and if necessary draw the memories from him with legilimency.

Besides this issue Albus couldn't see any enemies on the horizon. The next task would be arranging a meeting with the Moon Council. It had a massive following across Britain and if Edward were seen as the patron of werewolves in Britain then, when he inevitably became Albus' successor, he'd have a strong base of supporters to work with.

Yes, even savage beasts would come to heel before the greatness of The Albus Dumbledore.


	22. The Rotting Heart Tree

Disclaimer: In chapter one.

AN: Trying to keep the story from heading into the dark place it reached before. Don't know if it's worked. Please review.

Carrog and Cysged stepped through the oldest heart tree in Britain. A thin layer of mist covered the water surrounding the heart tree that they arrived at. The far shore held a forest of barely living trees, the bark had been gouged from their trunks and their unmoving branches had been stripped of leaves. The forest floor was littered with trees that hadn't been able to survive conditions on Azkaban Island. A light fog swirled amongst the suffering trees. The black clouds above hid the starless night in such a way that it was impossible to see where the clouds ended and the sky began.

Black armour snapped up around them; impenetrable, with many thousands of armour scales covering them from head to toe. Others stepped through the heart tree passage. Near four hundred Guardsmen in their own black armour and bearing battering ram, now covered in a moonsilver hide to protect its users. Behind them came eight wolves each in a light and flexible armour of hardened leaves woven by the elves of Sammuntia. Thirty phoenixes flamed into the air above the lake, warming those beneath them as the dementors' presence could already be felt despite being the far side of Azkaban Island.

Carrog had already formed a bridge across the tainted waters and the force slowly walked through the still forest. As they marched the sound of crashing waves became louder. They were approaching the narrowest part of the storm-ridden island, an entirely open half-kilometre between the forest's edge and the outermost gate of Azkaban Fortress.

When they came to the forest edge they found a storm in full effect, waves the height of several men struck the shore, occasionally submerging the entirety of the path in front of the gatehouse in shallow water. Thunder clapped overhead as forks of lightning cracked to the ground. The brief flashes of light illuminated the cold purple-black obsidian walls of Azkaban Fortress.

It had a thick curtain wall which held seven proud guard towers, atop each a bright fire cast light down onto the battlements and the sand far below. The gatehouse itself was comprised of four further towers and reached a formidable height just slightly off centre of the narrow peninsula leading up to the fortress' gates. The human guards employed by the Ministry to supervise the dementors were barely visible as they walked along the top of the curtain wall.

The force stopped hidden by the shadows of the forest. Darkness swirled about them, capturing any light within itself before it could escape the forest, and in the brief moments that lightning illuminated them the darkness covered them entirely. Carrog looked to Cysged. "The Swedes are in position." She told him. Her arms dropped and with them the shadows that had hidden them faded back into the forest. Carrog turned back to the fortress in time to see seven balls of blue flames slam into the towers. The sources of the fire were hidden in the clouds above. Where the flames struck, explosions shattered the towers, toppling them.

The curtain wall crumbled under the onslaught, filling the space between its scorched foundations and the keep proper, Azkaban Prison, with cracked obsidian. Azkaban Keep rose to be three times the height of even the gatehouse, which had survived the bombardment, and was entirely obsidian. Its jagged edges were sharp enough to sever even dragon limbs should they get too close.

Guardsmen ran from the tree line, they appeared to be chaotic and disorganised yet in a matter of minutes the moonsilver battering ram had reached the gates. The guardsmen had split into four distinct groups.

Many were dismantling the wards around Azkaban Fortress, while the fortress' curtain wall no longer presented any resistance, the wards were still daunting. Others were removing protective charms from the gatehouse itself and from the gates that it held. It was likely that there was a master wardstone within the gatehouse and if the prison guards retained control of it they could restore any wards that were dismantled easily.

Several of the prison guards were raining spell-fire down onto the battering ram and the Guardsmen below through windows and from the battlements. Most of the Guardsmen were shielding the others from the prison guards. A web of golden light arced over the attackers. Flashes of red, blue and even the occasional green slashed against the shield. The ground shook from the continuous percussive roaring only a short distance above the heads of the Guardsmen.

A few more senior Guardsmen were behind the others, slightly out of the range of all but the most capable prison guards' spells. A horde of fiend-fire hovered slightly above the damp sand beside them, glazing the ground below them and turning entire waves into clouds of steam. The wild fiery beasts were becoming restless waiting for the next act.

Then a large, clear, blue dome appeared over the entirety of Azkaban Fortress, for just a moment, before dark red cracks splintered its surface. Where the cracks ran, flames followed, the dome shattered. The burning, red wards were torn apart before fading into the ambient magic on the island.

Phoenix fire burnt bright against the storming night sky on the battlements as the phoenixes flamed over the prison guards and trapped them within phoenix fire nets, disabling their magic. The blue fire was now striking the keep, flames spilt down its sides flowing into the ruined curtain walls like rivers into the sea. The keep was resisting the force of the impact well, the prison guards who had been up there, however, had already fled into the lower levels of the keep.

The gates splintered and were thrown open by the ram head. The battering ram was left to one side of the destroyed gate as Guardsmen rushed into the gatehouse, seizing it and stunning the prison guards. Even within the gatehouse alone, it was clear that the assault on Azkaban Fortress had been devastating. Melted stone closed off several doorways, the doorways that were open lacked doors and many of the prison guards had suffered from burning or were riddled with obsidian splinters.

Someone within Azkaban Keep had released the dementors. The dementors extruded themselves through the obsidian walls of the keep, only slightly deterred by the rivers of fire surrounding the keep. The dementors were keen to feast upon the many souls that had so willingly wandered into their home.

Beasts of fire rushed forward, freed from their own leashes. The fiend-fire creatures grappled with the oncoming dementors, some had even destroyed a dementor. The burnt black cloak fell to the ground with a heavy thud before shattering like ice. The numbers on both sides began to lesson, several of the Guardsmen who had summoned the fiend-fire had collapsed to their knees after the beast that they had summoned faded. The blue fire had stopped falling from the sky.

Unknown to the Guardsmen, the prison guards had sent a distress message to the aurors informing them of the attack. Fifty aurors arrived at the official apparition point, a long distance from the ongoing fight. They wore bright red robes and had small golden circles on their right shoulders, in the circle a black set of scales balanced on the tip of a wand. The aurors were preparing to ambush the Guardsmen from behind while they were busy with the dementors, when seven Swedish Short-Snout dragons landed between them and the fortress.

They felt the ripple of magic that came with the creation of new wards as a bright blue dome covered the entire island. A small white star seemed to rest on top of the dome. While the aurors were distracted by the dragons and the new, restrictive wards, wolves had formed ranks behind them. All at once they howled and began charging forwards, the aurors spun to face them and began to cast spells. The dragons snapped wings and tails into the group throwing some to the ground.

By the time the large pack reached the aurors; several wolves lay scattered on the sand, their legs bent at awkward angles. Shallow craters littered the ground and the still storming sea left salt water in the new pools. Smaller wolves collected the wands that were dropped and helped to drag down any standing aurors. The wands were taken to the Guardsmen who were still in the gatehouse. Larger wolves held down the aurors, many clasping jaws around their arms. The Short-Snouts watched over them, the occasional spurt of blue flames keeping the aurors subdued.

A dozen Guardsmen came and stunned the aurors and brought them to the gatehouse and locked them into one of the rooms with the prison guards. The wolf pack returned to the treeline to watch for other reinforcements and the dragons took wing. With a final barrage of fire they left the keep's battlements aflame and started the long flight back to the Spine of Scandinavia.

The fighting between dementors and fiend-fire had almost died out. Guardsmen brought the ram from the front of the gatehouse to the keep proper's inner gate. By the time all of the dementors had succumbed to fire the gate had been torn from its hinges.

Phoenix fire filled the hallways of the prison as the prison guards were incapacitated while Guardsmen carried their unconscious bodies back out to the gatehouse.

* * *

Taranau was sat by the door to his cell, his armour had already been snapped up around him since he had discovered that it diminished the effects of the dementors. Ginny was in the cell opposite and sat by her door as well. They had been talking together when the attack started. Although they had only been imprisoned for the afternoon, so far, they were hopeful that Carrog and Cysged were already launching a rescue mission.

When Guardsmen were tearing their cell doors out of the wall, they were overjoyed. Carrog and Cysged quickly rushed the pair of them to the entrance of the prison. Many humans and elves were rushing about the now thoroughly destroyed fortress. They wore blue formfitting hide armour and had a simple emblem on their fronts of three golden circles, a small one at the bottom, a medium sized one touching it directly above and a larger one directly above that, and a soft orange flame on top of the three circles. They were tending to the wounded, on both sides, and already tended to the wolves who had suffered from broken legs fighting with the aurors.

As the four passed through the gatehouse, Cysged called out for them to reconstruct the memories of the prison guards and aurors. They soon arrived at the heart tree, most of the wolves were already there, those that weren't would return later with the healers. The rotting heart tree of Azkaban Island held onto the last vestiges of life in a solitary brown leaf. It contrasted greatly to the ancient tree that lived near the Hearth which was the first of the heart trees and had been grown by the Grandparents of the Forest themselves.

* * *

Ginny woke the next morning in the bed at the Hearth that she shared with Taranau. They were wrapped around one another as usual. When they went to breakfast the saw some of the healers in their blue hide armour speaking with Carrog and Cysged and overheard that, other than three younger wolves who would need to rest for several day and a more elderly Guardsman who was required to stay under care after summoning too many fiend-fire beasts, no-one had any lasting injuries from the previous night on either side. A few wolves seemed to be arguing with an elven woman about whether they could keep their armour.

Eventually all of the fighters had returned home, the elven woman having decided the armour a lost cause, and Carrog came into the kitchen.

"You remember that I told you of a bargain that I made with my niece about you?" He asked Taranau. Ginny looked confused.

"All seasons but summer." Taranau replied calmly. Ginny looked between the two of them.

"You won't need to attend lessons, of course we will be keeping your time there hidden from prying eyes, but you need to be within Hogwarts itself. Or you at least sleep there, or perhaps eat a meal, until I can have the bargain rescinded."

Taranau nodded in reply. His armour snapped up around him. "I'd prefer to just visit for breakfast each morning and come back here to be with Ginny for the rest of the time."

"I figured as much. Alexander! Hogwarts kitchens please." They disappeared in a ball of phoenix fire.

It was only an hour later that they returned. Taranau and Ginny were told that they'd be attending the same lessons that Taranau had been attending before Hogwarts, with the various peoples of the forest. Taranau and Ginny went to Sammuntia, the elven professors had agreed to teach in English until Ginny leant Elvish as a favour to the Grandparents, Taranau chattering about all of the teachers as they went.

* * *

Shortly after they left, Minerva arrived at the door of the Hearth. She was holding a copy of the Daily Prophet. The front page headline was that two prisoners had been taken from Azkaban the night before, no guards had been harmed in any way yet the prison itself had been completely obliterated. Both gates were no longer in place and large segments of the prison wall had made their way into either the sea or the inner courtyard. The wardstone was missing as well.

Minerva knew exactly who had been taken from the prison and exactly who had done it, even without having read the article fully. She couldn't tell anyone because of the binding magic that Cysged had forced upon her.

"Professor." Came Cysged's voice from behind her. She turned around.

"I thought you might like to read this." She handed the paper to Cysged who looked at it briefly.

"Let me guess, Taranau and Ginny?" Minerva only nodded. She knew that the attack on Azkaban had to be the purpose behind the meeting of so many magical beings at this house, which she had been lead to believe was only home to muggles and one muggleborn wizard. In fact the wooden house-like object that she'd seen the day before had been discovered at the gate of the prison proper.

"Come on in." Cysged opened the door. Minerva sat down in the chair that she had sat in when she was meant to be introducing the family to magic. She doubted that she'd introduced them to anything new that day.

Cysged sat down opposite her and closed her eyes. "You're of the impression that the children were rescued by Carrog and me?" Minerva nodded again. Although Cysged's eyes were still closed she continued as if she had seen. "I swear upon my magic that I did not attack Azkaban Fortress nor did I fight with any prison guards." Cysged glowed blue. She raised her hand. "Lumos." Her hand glowed white.

Minerva could feel the young woman's magic flowing through her, she had never felt magic this powerful before. She knew that she could never hope to break the binding curse that Cysged had used. Despite Cysged's oath, Minerva still believed that Taranau and Ginny were somewhere near the Hearth.

"Would you like some tea Minerva? I'm sure the children would love to see you." Carrog's voice came from the doorway. Cysged rolled her eyes.

* * *

Albus Dumbledore couldn't understand what had happened. Azkaban had been attacked, and just for two school children. None of the prison guards and aurors had stories that correlated in any way at all. Fifty aurors, all of whom had apparated to the same place at the same time saw completely different things upon arrival. Whoever attacked Azkaban knew what they were doing.

They could be a useful ally in the coming war. However they seemed to be friendly with Mister Lloyd and Miss Ginevra, perhaps they would be unusable, especially if they knew that he'd had to pull on many strings to get the two of them incarcerated in the first place. No, he had a plan and it would be unwise to get involved in this other group. He'd mistakenly gotten involved once and they had clearly shown him their power.

There was a knock at his door. He had been too distracted to notice anyone approach.

"Come in."

It was the Unspeakable again, or at least an Unspeakable for each was as unidentifiable as another. "What do you know of those who attacked Azkaban?" The Unspeakable stood unmoving beside a soft purple armchair.

"Next to nothing. They were brutally effective and they got Mister Lloyd and Miss Ginevra out of Azkaban which, I assume, was their objective."

"Mister Potter."

"Pardon?"

"You have been told this before. What do you know of the Law-writers?"

"Law-writers? The Wizengamot? Surely if the Department of Mysteries wished to know something about a member of the Wizengamot they wouldn't need to ask me. Who do you want to know about?"

"If you do not know, then surely you shall never find out." The Unspeakable turned about and left the office.

Albus returned to his thoughts. Perhaps he should entertain the possibility that Mister Lloyd and Mister Potter were one and the same. He would look into the matter. The Law-writers however puzzled him. Were they the group who had taken Mister Lloyd and Miss Ginevra from Azkaban, or was this an unrelated matter? Unfortunately his next plans had a time window associated with them.

The moon council would come with the summer. Remus had revealed that the council met near a house that he owned. Remus went to the small house to transform before moon council. If the council agreed to meet with him, then Remus would return to the house and show Albus the way to the moon council. He'd heard that the beasts were forbidden from spilling blood at the meeting. Luckily he wasn't a wolf and wouldn't be quite so restricted.

They'd agree to his terms or the moon council would cease to exist.


	23. A New Law

Disclaimer: In chapter one.

AN: Please review.

Spell-fire rained down from the walls of Caerphilly Castle in the dark of the night. Their bright light flashed across the moat to the watchful eyes of Carrog. A Muggle repelling ward covered the castle and basic notice-me-not charms kept prying kept the local town from noticing the exercises being carried out at the seemingly abandoned castle.

Several spells punctured that protected the battering ram at the gate. Flames spread across the wooden frame and Guardsmen rushed out of the collapsing ram. They scattered back into the rest of their group. Carrog sighed and shook his head. The trainees weren't ready to assault any castles any time soon, which was worrying, castles were much easier to capture than an underground complex and if any more disputes arose between the Guardsmen and the Ministry of Magic then they would likely have to seize the Ministry itself.

He hoped that subterfuge and stealth would work, he couldn't expect his trainees to be ready for pitched battles for at least a few years. A loud crack to one side and several of the Guardsmen were thrown into the moat. Many seemed to be a fair amount of pain. A dim purple ball went up into the air and a group of elves dressed in blue leather armour were already carrying them back to the medical tents. At least the healers were adept.

The group acting as defenders were doing well. They hadn't allowed many opportunities to form and definitely hadn't allowed the attackers to take advantages of any weakness in the defence. Their task was made more difficult by the fact that Caerphilly Castle had lost much of its outer wall centuries before. If it came to open conflict then he would need garrisons to hold and defend anything that was captured. Perhaps this exercise wasn't worthless. He'd wait until the sunrise and the arrival of the castle's muggle staff before ending the night's training.

* * *

Cysged had better news. She had received reports from various Guardsmen operatives who had found their way into key departments in the British Ministry of Magic. She had reports from a member of the Department of Magical Transportation, Department of Magical Law Enforcement, Department of International Trade and Cooperation and the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures.

While she hadn't been able to get an operative into the Department of Mysteries, she was happy with the information that she did get. The Department of Magical Transportation, while it would be difficult to shut down the floo network, could monitor any communications made through it. It also had several records of all portkeys and apparitions throughout the country.

The aurors, it seemed, had been relegated. Their budget was minimal and they had recruited very few new members over the past decade. While they still numbered almost two hundred, the once venerated backbone of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement was now seen as unnecessary. The quality of training that aurors received was also much poorer than the training that Guardsmen were given.

Internationally, Britain was greatly disliked. Minister Fudge was viewed as an idiot and the Department of International Trade and Cooperation had done very little to change that view. Their arrogant attitude had inspired a great deal of distrust in the British Ministry, besides the upcoming Quidditch World Cup no ministries were willing to work with Britain on any large projects. Similarly the Goblin Nation and the many Centaur Herds throughout Britain were displeased with the Ministry. There were already whispers of rebellion. The Dementors were approaching becoming uncontrollable in fear of fiend-fire and even relations with the distant Nocturne Imperium were strained.

The Ministry was weak and friendless, if it made the mistake of lashing out, it would collapse quickly.

* * *

A week later and Carrog left a private audience chamber in Westminster Palace. He had left the Lord Fallon, Minister of Defence and the Prime Minister with some words of wisdom. Hopefully they understood that it would be unwise to try to get involved in any conflict between the rather wealthy Guardsmen organisation, who had generously donated a great deal of money to the NHS, and the magical people of Britain unless they chose to join the right side of course. He knew that they had both already been briefed on magic and that they had had little positive interaction with the Ministry of Magic.

They would make the wise choice, he was sure.

* * *

She stood before him. A young woman, not yet fully matured. She shone with a golden light, albeit dimly, and she looked sallow and weak. Carrog took his niece into his arms. She tried to get even closer. He smiled down at her.

"Neither of us is doing a good job of keeping our sides of the bargain. Perhaps it would be best if it was ended early." She nodded in reply. "It will get better, even if the Guardsmen must seize the school, I won't let you just fade away into the night. You're my niece, Cassie." He returned her to her own feet and turned to leave with a soft kiss to the top of her head.

"What if it doesn't get better? What if he finds my heartstone? He's already destroyed the wardstones that were hidden beneath the gates and the centaurs have barely been able to hide the heart tree from him. He could destroy me and I won't even be able to take the forest as a host." She said to him.

He turned back to her at the doorway. "He won't find the heartstone. If I know anything, I know that your mother was very careful with protecting it. No wizard could find it on purpose. As for the forest, just as day follows night, life follows death. It can be reawakened from its slumber if it needs to be."

Carrog then left and so didn't hear her response. "Albus Dumbledore is a mortal man and we know of their nature. How shall you awaken ashes?"

* * *

Carrog told Taranau the next morning that he no longer needed to visit Hogwarts. Minerva had come back to the Hearth a few times after Taranau and Ginny had explained their innocence to her the day after the battle at Azkaban. The front door opened to reveal the older witch holding a small scarlet bag.

Minerva set the bag down at the table and began to eat some of the toast on the table. It wasn't too uncommon for her to eat a meal with them at least once a week. When they had finished eating, she pulled out a book from the bag.

"This is book was written about an animagus from the Amazon who had had multiple forms. He did not write the book and I believe that the author never even spoke to him so it is simply observations and theories. I must impress upon you to be careful with mastering your various transformations. As I tell the first years each year, transfiguration is the most dangerous magic that we teach at Hogwarts." Taranau and Ginny nodded.

They took the book and opened it to the contents page between them. It seemed to have a section entirely devoted to natural animal instinct for various animals and, later on in the book, the effects of opposing instincts and how to control them.

Minerva stood to leave. "I must be returning to Hogwarts, I am a Head of House after all. Oh, they've decided to move all of the prisoners who didn't escape Azkaban," She glanced at Taranau and Ginny with a soft smile, "to an undisclosed, secure location. Although one prisoner seems to have managed to escape in transit, a Mister Peter Pettigrew, I'll bring a Daily Prophet when I next visit."

* * *

Due to the escape, of both themselves and Peter Pettigrew, the remaining dementors had been sent to Hogwarts to guard against Taranau and Ginny return to try and finish what they had started and to prevent Peter Pettigrew getting at Edward. Apparently he had been a Death Eater spy over a decade before. With this new information, a group of Guardsmen were dispatched to the Forbidden Forest with the instructions of remaining undetected and destroying the remaining dementors since Hogwarts herself was still much too weak to defend the students from the dementors. The group used arrows coated in basilisk venom to slay the last of the dementors.

Carrog and Cysged went to Azkaban and created a large cube of obsidian atop the mostly intact Azkaban Keep. It had a plaque on the front which read, 'In memory of those most well-known unknowns. Night finds us all." Above the plaque stood a statue of purest white marble, it was a dementor with a crown of dancing black flames atop its head.

* * *

Taranau and Ginny had come far in their lessons. Cysged and Carrog had been receiving messages from their other teachers telling them of the children's prowess and they too had noted Taranau and Ginny's skill. Summer was fast approaching.

And with the summer came Ginny's first Moon Council. All the creatures of the forest and even some from further beyond had recognised her as Taranau's life mate and as an honorary child of the Grandparents. The moon rose and thousands upon thousands of wolves howled into the night, there wasn't a single wolf from the British Isles who wasn't in attendance nor any from France who had stayed across the channel. Indeed even several German and Spanish packs had arrived for the night. The three Man-wolf packs had swollen in number, now there were seven times as many.

Ginny and Taranau were sat by a tree at the front of the moon council and Cysged had directed the river to flow further to the east for the night. The Grandparents and their family could voice an opinion but had no right to vote at moon council. They had heard many disputes and solved many quarrels throughout the night. The first matter to come to the council however had come from a Man-wolf who had no pack. Remus Lupin had come forward.

"While I was in my Man-form, Albus Dumbledore asked that I bring this matter before you." He was surprised by how many wolves were angered by Albus' name. There wasn't a British pure-wolf in attendance who had not growled at the mention of Albus. "He would like to meet with the moon council this night."

"And how has he come to know of the moon council, Remus Lupin?" Another wolf called. "Perhaps you have betrayed the Great Pack. When we are at moon council we are one pack, have you forgotten this? Have you given our secrets to men?" Others took up this wolf's call.

"It is true that I was the one who told him of the moon council. I had not meant to harm any wolf with my words or my actions."

Carrog put his own voice forth. "Does he know where the moon council meets? You cannot travel to him and bring him here by magic when you are within Wolf-form."

"He does not know that we are here. He is in the house that I transformed within. He is near." At his words many wolves stood and put their noses to the wind.

"Men can mask their scents, wizards better so." Cysged told the wolves. "He could be amongst us and you would not know."

"You have allowed a man to be your alpha Remus Lupin. You have betrayed the Great Pack. I propose that you be exiled from the Great Pack, never to return to moon council." The wolf who had first called against Remus Lupin said.

Carrog answered this wolf. "Calm yourself Enfado. Remus Lupin's proposal was proposed first, yours second. Your proposal shall, therefore, be considered second. As for the matter of Albus Dumbledore." Carrog turned to the rest of the council, "He attacked my cubs, he took them from the home of my niece, and then he attacked my niece. I have no right to vote, yet my den stands only through those trees. It is my territory that hosts the Moon Council, this was agreed to, many generations before now. However, he will not hesitate to spill wolf's blood and I shall not hesitate to spill man's blood. I will protect my cubs, my den and my territory."

An alpha from the forest called for a vote. Carrog asked Ginny to lead the vote since she the law she crafted afterwards would be more impartial and would, most likely, be closer to the wishes of the Moon Council. "Remember Ginny, wolves hunt the fearful. Be brave." Taranau whispered to her.

Ginny stood. "All those in favour of Albus Dumbledore meeting with the Moon Council." Remus Lupin rose alone. "All those opposed?" Remus Lupin alone, remained sat on the grass. "Albus Dumbledore shall not be permitted to meet with or attend the Moon Council until three years and three seasons have passed thrice over. As I say it, I mean it. As I mean it, I say it. So mote it be."

Taranau stood. "Enfado, now is the time to speak to the Moon Council."

The brown-red wolf rose. "Never before has a wolf betrayed the Great Pack. No wolf has revealed to any man the existence of Moon Council. Men have slaughtered whole packs, they have attempted to murder our whole kind. They burn forests to ash. We have heard this night that men have made offences against even the Grandparents of the Forests. Remus Lupin has betrayed the Great Pack, betrayed wolf-kind. There is no place for traitors at Moon Council. If it were not forbidden, I would slay him here this night before you all for his crime. I propose that he be exiled. That he be forbidden from returning to the Great Pack and to the Moon Council. Let him return to his Man alpha. Come dawn my pack shall hunt Remus Lupin down." Enfado returned to the grass.

Taranau led the vote. "All those in favour?" Just under half of the wolves rose. "All those opposed?" Ten wolves rose, Remus Lupin among them. Taranau sighed. "Remus Lupin, you are hereby exiled from the Great Pack, you may not return to the Great Pack nor attend Moon Council from this day and until the end of days. Any wolf may hunt you without fear of repercussion. Such is the punishment for those who betray the Great Pack. As I say it, I mean it. As I mean it, I say it. So mote it be."

Remus Lupin shot through the trees. He did not know whether the punishment allowed for traitor's blood to be spilt during Moon Council.

After this, Moon Council went as smoothly as any meeting between so many wolves could be expected to.

* * *

Albus Dumbledore was disappointed. Remus had not returned to the house even though Albus had waited there until sunrise. He left the house. He found Remus just outside. The body was without any limbs and the head lay separate. Much of the body was torn. Albus returned to Hogwarts. The Moon Council's answer was clear. He still didn't know where exactly Moon Council was and it would be foolish to enter the forest of a provoked pack. He'd have to arrange for a new professor this year as well.

Edward had chosen to duel Professor Lockhart at the end of the year. It was something about how he'd discovered that Lockhart had been obliviating some female students. Whatever the reason, Edward was the one who had rescued the children of Hogwarts, despite in fact losing the duel, and, since Lockhart had so successfully fooled the general public, no one had complained about how he had come to be at Hogwarts in the first place.

Perhaps James could be defence professor this year. Edward would be easily controlled if he was in one of his parent's classes and unfortunately Miss Granger hadn't been able to get him to take his mother's class. Thinking of Lily, Albus wondered if she might know much about the castle's history. He'd noticed that although he'd replaced the wardstones he still wasn't in control of the castle's defences. He'd need to be in control of them soon.

For, as the centaurs would say, Mars was bright.


	24. The Sixth Sin - Invidia

Disclaimer: In chapter one.

AN: Please review.

An issue that had taken up much of Albus Dumbledore's time recently, came back to the forefront of his mind once again. Harry Potter. It had been many years since the boy had disappeared and all useful leads seemed to have faded with the years. All of his sources had been unable find him, in both the Muggle and the Wizarding Worlds.

The Unspeakables had continued to be adamant that Mister Lloyd and Mister Potter were one and the same yet he had continued to believe that Hogwarts would not deceive him. It was impossible to enrol under a false name without Hogwarts informing him. He had been sure that replacing the wardstones and binding them to him would give him complete control over the castle. Minerva had assured him many times that Mister Lloyd had, despite his exceptional prowess, been raised by a Muggle family and he knew that Harry Potter wouldn't be as powerful as Mister Lloyd, the boy hadn't even been as powerful as his brother.

Or so he had thought two years ago. Just before the Dursleys had succumbed near simultaneously to a very rare disease, they had told him about a couple who matched the pair from the Great Hall all those years before. They had taken young Harry from number four Privet Drive. It was possible that they had deceived Minerva, and that they had simply pretended to be Muggles. The Unspeakables' whisperings had slowly changed his mind. He got up to go ask Minerva about the location of Mister Lloyd's family's home.

The couple from so long ago had been the source of most of his troubles. In Edward's first year they and another two had stolen the Philosopher's Stone and, Albus supposed, seized Tintagel Castle, kidnapping or killing Nicolas and his wife. In truth Albus had never intended for the two elderly magicians to survive past Edward's first year but the uncontrolled manner of their demise worried him. Were they still alive, feeding the secrets of his youth and studies to these unknowns or had they passed away first?

Just the year previously Azkaban had fallen. Now he felt sure that it was the same group who had attacked the prison that were supporting this pair, especially after they left an indestructible monument to the dementors. Several of their number had been seen in Hogsmeade slaying the last few dementors and the Unspeakables had returned to his ear, whispering about the Law-Writers. This group had taken Harry from the Dursleys and his control, he felt that it wasn't such a stretch to imagine that they might have taken him from Azkaban as well.

This summer Remus, his only envoy amongst the werewolves, had been killed at Moon Council and it hadn't even revealed the Council's meeting place. Albus saw their hand in this too, how far did this group reach? Albus had visited the Ministry the week before to discuss the matter.

Amelia and Cornelius had agreed to meet after a single member of the group had been discovered in the Department of Mysteries. They had caused a collapse in the Hall of Prophecies and not a single prophecy, nor the man, had remained when the rubble was cleared. The Unspeakables, however, had been furious about something else, a large room had been entirely emptied. One wall had even been removed. They hadn't explained what the room had held, naturally, nor why someone might steal a wall, but they had evidently considered it more valuable than the Hall of Prophecies.

Departments throughout the Ministry were using various methods to discover this group's presence in the Ministry. No other's had been discovered as of yet.

The Daily Prophet, the next morning, had informed him that the group, which for now had been dubbed 'The Black Knights', after the Unspeakables over-ruled the name 'Law-Writers', was an illegal organisation intent upon recreating the wizarding world. Albus had been surprised by the Unspeakables' insistence that the group were not the Law-Writers, he had been so sure that they were the same. A ghost of a smile touched his face anyway, he had got his way with this group that day.

He had arrived at Minerva's personal quarters while he thought back on the week. "Good evening Minerva." She turned around. As she met his eyes, he delved into her mind. "Could you tell me how to get to the Hearth?" She frowned slightly. He reached a barrier in her mind. He knew that Minerva had never learnt occlumency and that this barrier had only been made recently. It seemed to prevent him from seeing any memories concerning time she had spent at the Hearth.

"I do not see how that is of any concern to you, Albus. I have already told you that Mr and Mrs Lloyd know nothing about where Mister Lloyd and Miss Ginevra are. Surely my word is good enough, I should think you would trust me Albus." It was Albus' turn to frown. Minerva rarely refused him something and never something so seemingly basic and unimportant.

He pressed against the barrier. Minerva gasped. "Albus what are you doing?" She drew her wand. She was no match for Albus. He had her bound in a matter of moments. He pressed harder. She began to thrash about, her face contorted into a silent agony.

Even after Albus had exhausted himself against the barrier and Minerva was unconscious, he still didn't know where the Hearth was. He summoned aurors. Minerva was evidently a member of the Black Knights. Even his own staff in Hogwarts weren't safe from their influence, yet. He redoubled efforts to take control of Hogwarts.

* * *

Cysged received a message from one of her agents in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, Minerva was to go on trial for being a member of the Black Knights that afternoon. Carrog apparated to the Guardsmen headquarters which rested atop and within a Snowdonian mountain. A score of veteran Guardsmen were waiting, already armed and armoured. In the middle of them stood a large stone man. Carrog nodded and the stone man vanished.

* * *

In courtroom ten, the chair, which was supposed to bind Minerva McGonagall to itself, had refused to chain her. The wizard on duty had been unable to force the chair to do as it was bid. Veritaserum couldn't make her talk about the Black Knights and even the Imperious Curse hadn't been enough to force her to plead either guilty or not. It was just after they had used the Imperious Curse that the court erupted into screams.

A man made entirely of stone and standing twelve foot tall had appeared behind the chair with a loud bang. The doors of the room locked and then became part of the wall, cracks started to appear in the ceiling. The stone man turned into small shards and whipped around the room in a whirlwind, slicing at the hands of anyone who had drawn a wand and forcing them to drop the offending weapon.

Twenty men in black scale armour appeared in the room. Four of them bore a stretcher and took Minerva McGonagall to the Guardsmen headquarters. The others created a shield to protect them from the continuing swirl of sharp stone shards.

Then the shards dropped to the ground, the cracks sealed and the men were gone. Burnt into the floor in front of the chair were words written in a tongue so ancient that not even elves understood it.

* * *

Carrog returned to his previous task. He, and numerous Goblins, were storing the stolen prophecies into an oracle chamber. They were breaking the prophecies and transcribing them in an archaic runic language into large stone discs. The Oracle Chamber was located, rather suitably, deep within the Pindus mountain range near to Delphi and encased in powerful wards.

Carrog had decided to assign the Oracle Chamber to the civil branch of the Guardsmen which handled agrarian issues and manned their construction and healing teams, their uniform was a simple blue leather armour bearing a simple torch emblem. The Guardsmen referred to them as members of the Hand while those involved in the military branch were members of the Guard. Seers and other prophets would work at the Oracle Chamber under the torch of the Hand.

While in the Oracle Chamber a goblin came up to Carrog and told him about a prophecy that might concern him. They walked the length of the chamber. In the very centre of the wall was a large stone with an embellished edge, Carrog knew this one to be the prophecy of the Great Prophet Sagittarius, concerning the end of days. The goblin gestured to a much smaller rune-stone off to one side.

'The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches…

Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies…

And the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not…

And either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives…

The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies…'

He turned to the goblin. "How old is this one?" The goblin pointed to a golden plaque on the floor in front of the rune-stone before turning and heading towards a group of goblins working on the next stolen prophecy.

The plaque read: 'S.P.T to A.P.W.B.D Dark Lord and (?) Edward Potter 14/03/1980'

* * *

The next morning Taranau and Ginny knew the prophecy themselves. "We can't be certain if the prophecy refers to you or your brother since it could apply to you both, and the only way to know for sure is to ask Lord Voldemort ourselves since both you and Edward have scars. Although I think your scar is more fitting, the Dark Mark burnt into Edward's arm is not a mark of being equal to Lord Voldemort, if it was then I doubt so many Death Eaters would bear it. So you two are going to have to go through Guardsmen training with the members of the Guard this year before the idea of letting you go back to Hogwarts at some point can even be considered. If it was my choice rather than yours, you wouldn't be going back at all."

So that afternoon Taranau and Ginny found themselves in the Guardsmen headquarters in Cadair Idris Mountain in Northern Snowdonia. "Welcome to the Cadair." Carrog spoke when they arrived.

They had arrived at the main entrance, it was supposedly impossible to pass through the wards around the rest of the complex. The wide tunnel hewn into the mountain had rough walls and the simple birch wood doors in front of them had Cysged's emblem painted over them.

As they passed through the doorway they felt the powerful wards identifying and assessing them. The tunnels became neater and the walls smoother. To one side there was a large mess hall and to another there was an infirmary, with many elves rushing about tending to various injuries. They passed a large open hole in the side of the mountain with hundreds of high-quality custom-built brooms hovering slightly off the ground.

Finally they came to a training arena. The floor was sand and as students moved towards a wall the area expanded, creating obstacles or terrain as necessary. The walls themselves were painted in such a way that it seemed as if they weren't there at all. At that moment it seemed the training was happening in cornfield. They were watching the students below defeat their opponents, who looked suspiciously like aurors, from an observation balcony.

"This is the training arena that you've been assigned to." Cysged told Taranau and Ginny. "You'll be given a crash course in training for members of the Guard, you should find that many of the basics are easy for you since you have attended many different schools of magic, the masters of Sammuntia, the professors of Hogwarts and ourselves all teach different magic differently. So you should have the basics of lots of different magics already down. Your other teachers say you're intelligent and skilled. Get to it."

Carrog pushed them forwards and the observation balcony faded away. Taranau and Ginny fell to the sand below, their armour already snapped up around them. "You're partners." Carrog called down. "Have fun, don't do anything stupid, be home by dark!" Carrog and Cysged turned and walked back into the rest of Cadair.

Taranau and Ginny turned around. The pseudo-aurors had disappeared. The walls had changed to look like they were in a room in an old rickety house. They glanced at one another before the other students, or were these ones trainers, began to cast spells at them at a furious rate and with great power.

They withstood the onslaught for almost five minutes and even drove most of their opponents from the room before darkness enveloped them. They awoke in the infirmary a short while later.

* * *

Three days after the trial, Lily came to Albus' office and told him that she had discovered that Hogwarts itself was somewhat sentient. The founders, or more specifically Rowena Ravenclaw, had fashioned a heartstone for the castle to allow it to form a magical entity should enough magic be poured into it. After a few centuries of use as a school of magic, a woman of golden light had appeared to the 6th Headmaster of Hogwarts School. Since then the castle had been capable of resisting the control of a headmaster that it considered unworthy.

Lily had mentioned that destroying the heartstone of Hogwarts would force the entity to leave Hogwarts Castle and seek residence in some other powerful host, however no-one had ever found the heartstone before, not even with Rowena Ravenclaw's notes on the subject of heartstones available.

Albus began his quest to discover the heart stone's resting place.


	25. The Beating Drums

Disclaimer: In chapter one.

AN: Sorry for the delay. Please review.

Deep within the Forbidden Forest firelight splashed amongst the trees. Centaurs cast shadows out into the night filled forest. They stood waiting for the other creatures of the forest to appear. It had been nearly 1,500 year since the last meeting of the Confederacy of the Forbidden Forest. That meeting had happened just before the battle of Cat Coit Celidon when a nephew of the Grandfather had come and asked that the forest walk at his side. The forest had agreed and so the nephew had won his battle for his King Arthur.

Now though it was not an ally of the Grandparents who brought a need but the forest itself. Albus Dumbledore had been searching the forest looking for the home that Hogwarts lived in. His search had brought him to the heart tree. He, like those men who had come before, was filled with fire and had needed to be driven from the forest by force.

So the Confederacy had to meet. Centaurs had ridden across the ancient forest at speed with the word that the elders of the herd were summoning all to the heart tree.

The shadows at the edge of the lake began to shift as all manner of creature stepped out of the forest's edge and into the light of the fire that the centaurs had been stood around.

"The night is dark. Men have discovered the heart tree here once more, and once more they have set upon themselves to burn it. Such is the fear men have when they set sight upon the heart trees. While the heart tree so do we, and so does this forest. I have summoned you here today so that we might arrange for our home be protected." The chief of the centaur herd spoke calmly into the group.

"We remember what happened the last time this forest marched on into war, Centaur! Have the stars cleaned your mind? Or perhaps there are some ancient whisperings you keep to yourselves! There is so little left of Coed Cugg after this Confederacy let a man call us into a man's war." A voice shrilly cried out from the undergrowth. Many others nodded in agreement.

"This is not a man's war, we need not follow men into battle of steel and iron. This is our home, where shall you wander to, Spider, when the heart tree burns? Your future is tied to this forest as closely as mine. Either we defend our home or we shall burn with it." The centaur's anger was fierce as his legs reared up, kicking.

A cold voice pitched in from another side. "And how shall we defend this forest, if he has found his way to the heart tree who shall stop him from finding it again. You want to save us from the burning of the heart tree by bleeding us dry in an endless war. We cannot fight wizards, we know this, and we have tried so many times before."

"We have a fire here tonight, dancing for us. Who amongst us shall throw its burning wood upon the heart tree, for each of you who does not stand in alliance with this confederacy when it defends the heart tree, is doing just that."

Silence descended upon them. The flames dancing in the darkness. "Let us now be civil. It has been a long time since we have met here, it has been many generations since the man Merlin broke his faith with us, let us not break faith with one another. The Coed Cugg has grown here since the ice melted, tonight we must decide. Shall it stand until the End of Days comes?"

Approval rang out into the night and shook the very foundations of Hogwarts Castle over five miles away.

* * *

It was two moons later that Sir Buckbeak of the Hippogriffs was slain, bound by chains. Arrow fire rained down on his murderers and spell fire was returned. Several birds took flight to bring word to the Grandparents of the Forests. The Confederacy of Coed Cugg had chosen a path of vengeance.

Centaurs rushed through the forest calling out to warn them that battle had begun. Many rushed forth to the forest edge, creatures who hunted one another and were vicious rivals poured out together onto Hogwarts grounds to face almost a hundred aurors.

The battle was fierce, centaurs fired upon the aurors, several centaurs found themselves tied and strangled in ropes. Acromatulae rushed forwards hundreds being caught in fires, the edge of the forest was cratered and aflame. Those who could fight through the burning forest did, those who couldn't hurried to out the fire before it could spread.

The trees themselves came alive with fury, their roots catching at the aurors and snapping legs, branches whirling in anger. The ambient magic of the forest no longer held its calming soothing magic as usual, it brought only fear and anger and pain. The shadows of the forest swirled and the mist thickened.

Through the mist and the shadows and the smoke, Albus Dumbledore saw a man walking purposefully forward. He stepped into the light of the blazing forest and the fires turned a bright green yet still his armour showed that emblem that had puzzled Albus for so long, the three bloody heads.

The creatures of the forest fled back into the forest depths and Albus wondered if perhaps he and the aurors should flee back to Hogwarts also. The man's hands rose and the flames grew brighter and larger. Albus' eyes widened. "Run! Retreat! Get back to Hogwarts!" The aurors couldn't apparate, the oppressive magic of the forest gripping them whenever they tried.

They ran, the burning forest set against the fresh night behind them. A loud crack chased them throwing them off of their feet. The flames had gone. Only the blackened ground and trees showed that a fire had been there. The man was stood in front of the slightly smoking forest. Albus called for Fawkes, he didn't come.

The man vanished.

* * *

Cysged wandered through the forest, already members of the Hand had set up camp healing the wounded and injured, many were severely burnt and a few wouldn't see sunrise. Tear rolled down her cheeks as she saw the scorched earth beneath her. The wizards had gotten far before Carrog arrived, they had burnt the defenders back almost a half mile. Albus Dumbledore had gone too far. She looked to Carrog and he nodded, still tending to a serpent who was bleeding heavily from his tail.

The shadows of the forest surrounded her.

She stepped forwards into the open fields around Port Mullanog. The sea whistled as it swam to her right and the cliffs rumbled against the oncoming waves. She walked a ways down the coast until the town was out of her sight. She slipped down the cliffs into the waters below and submerged herself.

This part of the shore was notorious for being home to the Irish Krakens. They had no unified governance for real leader but she knew that most would do as the strongest did. It was how they worked.

She swam deeper until she came across a large opening in the rock that hummed. A green tentacle reached out from the depths a flicked about in the water as if it were a snake's tongue testing its surroundings. Then from the opening another nine tentacles were followed by the large bulbous body of the creature that must have measured at least four hundred metres in length.

She touched a hand to its face and one of its eyes watched her intently. Then with a sudden burst of speed it slung itself out into the Irish Sea, a great roar sending shockwaves through the water. Moments later dozens of roars came reverberating back. Cysged smiled.

* * *

Captain Jameson was on the bridge of the destroyer HMS Daring. He had been assigned to a distress signal coming out of the Irish Sea. The third one this week, and Lord Fallon hadn't been able to ignore that neither of the other distress signal ships had made it into a port.

The Daring came across the merchant ship just out of sight of the Isle of Mann. It was an odd ship, they apparently had no radio since there was a man with semaphore flags at the stern of the ship, and they were all wearing robes and wizard hats.

After that everything happened quickly. A long green tentacle wrapped itself around the merchant ship. Then two more appeared. Men were jumping from the ship and trying to swim towards the Daring. The ship snapped into three pieces with a loud bang and was pulled under. Most of the crew of the merchant ship were caught in the sinkhole created by the sinking ship.

Jameson's crew were trying to pull as many men out of the water as they could but several couldn't be reached and went under. Once everyone had been brought aboard Jameson had the ship turned around to make land at Mann. A bright blue light appeared where the ship has sunk and the men who had been pulled down by the sinkhole all suddenly resurfaced. A shrill cacophony of screaming came with them as blue mermen deposited them back on the surface of the water near to the Daring.

Miraculously the crew of the merchant ship seemed to all be alive. They were pulled aboard and those who had gone down with the ship were different. They were all dry, they had evidently recently been severely injured, broken bones and large splinters of wood were some of the more obvious injuries, yet they had all fully healed leaving only scars and they all had a white sheet wrapped around them with a golden torch logo across it.

He would have to question them when they awoke, something odd was happening here and the Lord Fallon would certainly want to know what.

* * *

Carrog appeared on the Dover coast. He walked out into the sea and swam along the shore line, being sure to keep away from the white cliffs. It was burrowed into those cliffs that new phoenixes were born, the phoenix magic had stained the cliffs white. The birth of a phoenix was a very sacred event to phoenix kind and no outside was permitted to see it. He came across the meeting place of the phoenix High Court.

Twenty thin towers of stone stood in a ring in the sea. Not even on a stormy day would the waters wet the tops of the towers. A wider stone platform stood lower down in the centre. Carrog climbed up onto the central platform and flames burst into being on the towers around him.

Twenty of the oldest phoenixes in the world were perched atop the towers. Alexander and Auradain were the only ones who were still bonded with a non-phoenix.

"Good day." Carrog called out to the members of the High Court. "I come to ask for your support, for phoenixes to come into war and battle once more. Men have declared war upon the heart trees of the forests. I need not remind you of what shall happen should the heart trees die, I'm sure."

"And if we have forgotten, brother?" A phoenix called down from Carrog's right.

"You have not. When the heart trees burn the End of Days shall come. This isn't something you should take lightly."

"When the Heart Tree burns, the End of Days comes, it is not the heart tree that the men seek to burn though, is it?"

"They seek to burn all heart trees, the Heart Tree amongst them. The End of Days is not something that you can burn back from. Not even as phoenixes do. The Prophet Sagittarius warned us of a great fire. And then after the great fire, his prophecy will come to pass. Do not think that it will not include you."

"Phoenixes are pure, there is nothing to forgive of us. The prophecy may come to pass but it will mean nothing to us."

"Nothing?! You are fools! The skin of the earth shall burn unto ash, and the waters shall retreat unto the salt, and mountains shall be plucked from the ground like pegs from soil, and all shall become dust and salt and ash, naught shall be forgiven! How can you think that you don't need forgiveness? Phoenix kind is not pure. You doom yourselves. I have wasted my time here clearly." Carrog turned back the way he came and slipped down into the waves.

A soft singing followed him before a loud screech came from the High Court. He looked back. The High Court member who had spoken was burning on the lower platform. The other phoenixes vanished into phoenix fire. Alexander came to Carrog's side as he swam.

"We shall ready, not all of us are so foolish." He trilled in phoenix song.

Carrog returned home, phoenix flames shining amongst the stars as they sang in the night. Cysged lay on the grass in the garden watching the new stars flit across the sky preparing for the storms to come. He leant down and picked her up. He carried her to their bed. The bed had only ever been slept in by Taranau when he was younger. The next day rose quickly.

* * *

Both of them arrived in the mountains of the spine of Scandinavia. The sky was flocked by dragons as it had been those centuries before when the pair had lived in this mountain range. One particularly large dragon with snow white wings landed in front of them. "Good morning Himmeljakt." Carrog spoke in the draconic tongue.

"We seek assistance in battle, the men of magic in Britain seek to burn the heart trees. They must be stopped." Cysged stepped forward, she had always been influential amongst dragon-kind.

"And what might be asked of us?" Other dragons had settled to listen in on the conversation.

"There are lonely islands in the north of Britannia, islands that were once home to the Faraeyar dragons. If they might become home to dragons once more, then perhaps other islands, more southerly ones may also be suitable reward to you all."

The dragons nodded in agreement. "We will see it done Aunt." Himmeljakt took to the air. Cysged looked over at Carrog and they faded into nothingness.

* * *

The Hearth had become busy. Envoys from as far afield as the Nocturne Imperium had responded to the call to arms and even the Goblins, who gained much from wizarding business had agreed to close their doors to wizards.

Guardsmen within the ministry had crippled several departments. Archives had been torched, an explosion tore through the Department of Magical Law Enforcement in the night and the systems that monitored magical travel had been destroyed. The ministry woke the next day to find that over fifty reliable members of staff had vanished leaving a simple resignation citing that they had found better employment elsewhere. The number of Unspeakables who had mysteriously vanished was still uncertain, they were in a fury again. The Department of Mysteries had been ransacked of everything of use and much research had been destroyed.

When Madame Bones had gone to the Muggle government to have the Black Knights made an official terrorist group in both Wizarding and Muggle Britain, she was driven away by armed police. The Muggles had chosen to sever all ties with the Ministry of Magic.

The year continued to go well for the Guardsmen. Wizarding merchant ships would sink shortly after Lord Fallon was warned of attacks by Guardsmen agents, the creatures of the Forbidden Forest had reformed the Coed Cugg Confederacy and were holding their ground, several other forest confederacies had formed and fortified their homes. The ministry was struggling to regain its footing and wizarding settlements on the Outer Hebrides had quickly chosen to allow dragon rule on their home islands.

Then came Taranau's dream. They knew then which Potter the prophecy meant. Carrog and Cysged had vanished for several days after the dream to prepare for a second front. Taranau and Ginny had quickly risen to be in the top of their class at Cadair, they both had lots of raw magical power from having lived only a minute's walk from the oldest heart tree in Britain.

The world cup quidditch final had the lowest attendance of any in history. Taranau and Ginny had managed to get Carrog to take them, however, and so had discovered that both Carrog and Taranau were immune to the veela magic. When Cysged told them after the match that it meant that Taranau's love for Ginny was so strong that it had overpowered the combined magic of all the veela, Ginny had dragged Taranau away to their tent for a rather long time.

* * *

Albus Dumbledore was rather surprised, although he had not found the Hogwarts heartstone, he had found the heart tree of the forbidden forest. Unfortunately the forest's inhabitants had fought to protect it there were miles of forest still between him and the heart tree. Elsewhere similar forces had gathered, protecting many forests as well as highlighting which ones held heart trees. Albus intended to eradicate the heart trees they seemed to unite the magical races against wizard-kind, he was certain that these Black Knights had organised the attacks against the ministry ships and the villages on the Hebrides especially since he had seen one of them in the forest that first battle.

They were definitely something to be feared but he was sure that they wouldn't be able to sustain a fight against the raw power of wizards for long.

He had been forced to teach transfiguration this year and unfortunately James had told him that he wouldn't be continuing to teach as he would be helping the aurors in their attempts to seize Gringotts.

An even more surprising event was the Triwizard Tournament. Indeed he had been trying to get the other schools to agree as it would allow for a controlled rebirth of Tom but he hadn't truly expected them to agree due to the turmoil in Britain. The Tournament would be taking place at Beauxbatons to avoid any students being harmed on the way to Britain, apparently Karkaroff had been worried about the krakens that were plaguing British shores. Soon even the Black Knights would recognise the need for peace, he thought.

For Tom was on his way home.


	26. Representative Of Sammuntia

Disclaimer: In chapter one.

AN: Please review.

Taranau awoke in a cold sweat, Ginny was already awake holding him tightly as she tried to comfort him. He felt aches all over his body. This was the second dream of the summer and this one clearly identified him as the one who Lord Voldemort was hunting. Already his memory of the dream was fading but he remembered an old man being killed and Lord Voldemort telling a short man about a plan to capture him.

Taranau shook himself and after relaxing into Ginny for a short time set about making the two of them breakfast, despite her protest that she could do it herself.

Carrog and Cysged entered the kitchen just as a raven swooped through an open window, a letter clasped between its talons. It had been Halloween the night before. The Beauxbatons coat of arms was pressed into a wax seal on the letter. When Carrog read out the letter explaining that Harry Potter had been named as a champion of Hogwarts School by the Goblet of Fire they set about making preparations to arrive at Beauxbatons Palace that afternoon.

Cysged went to Sammuntia to speak with the Grand Masters there about them accepting Harry Potter as a representative of their school. Carrog created a fidelius charm around Taranau and Ginny so that no one would recognise that Harry Potter was Taranau and that Tanwen Darian was Ginny. They had already been planning to hide the fact that Taranau and Harry were the same since their operatives in the Department of Mysteries had brought back a wall identifying Harry as someone who had met a Law-Writer and a target for Unspeakable study. Harry became Tanwen's secret keeper and Tanwen became his.

* * *

The four of them appeared in the Great Hall of Beauxbatons Palace in a ball of phoenix flame. As students from three schools looked on in awe at their arrival, escorted by a pair of phoenixes, they were lead into another room beside the Great Hall.

Within it was a seventh year Hufflepuff, an eighth year Beauxbatons student and a seventh year Durmstrang student. Albus Dumbledore stood with his fellow headmaster and headmistress while members of the French Ministry of Magic were conversing quietly in a corner.

"Monsieur Potter. It is wonderful that you could come at such short notice, I sincerely apologise for the trouble." The Beauxbatons headmistress told him. "May we have the honour of being introduced to your companions?" Her head nodded towards the others.

Harry looked at the other headmasters and decided that they all understood English. "Of course Madame Maxime, this is my girlfriend, Tanwen Darian, and her parents." He indicated them both. "They have been caring for me since a young age." Madame Maxime nodded in understanding.

"Monsieur Potter, we must ask, although it seems unlikely, did you enter yourself into the Goblet of Fire?"

"I did not."

"And did you ask another to enter your name for you?"

"I did not."

"Bon. Since you are not, in fact, a student at Hogwarts is there a school that you shall be representing, or shall you be an independent competitor?"

"Must I compete? Surely if I did not enter nor give permission to be entered I need not compete."

"I'm afraid Monsieur Potter that being entered is a magical contract, the contract has not been changed in a long time and, when it was originally created it was given to allow for a name to be entered without permission, so that any student could be entered to improve a school's chance of winning."

"I see, then I shall be competing as a representative of the Sammuntia School of Magics."

"Of course Monsieur." Several of the Ministry staff bustled away to have the tournament set up.

"Mister Potter! If I may have a word?" Harry turned to face Albus Dumbledore. He could feel the light touch of a skilled legilimens.

"Why ask when you are already attempting to plunder my mind? You're asking for a key to a lock you're already trying to pick. I have no business with you." He turned to leave.

"Monsieur Potter? There is a guest suite available for you, if you would follow. The contestants may not leave the Palace." Madame Maxime went through a door. Harry, Tanwen, Carrog and Cysged followed. Eventually they reached a set of rooms on the fourth floor of the west wing of Beauxbatons Palace. There were three sleeping quarters there and a common room between them. Carrog and Alexander went to get everyone's belongings and bring them to the guest suite.

* * *

The next morning the four went to the Great Hall and upon entry the wood nymphs, which had been serving and entertaining the students as usual, all knelt before them only rising when the four had sat down. The Beauxbatons students were all surprised as the wood nymphs had only ever reacted like this when Nicolas Flamel and his wife returned to the school for a reunion with some of the ghosts five years before.

Shortly after them Madame Maxime entered the hall and all of the Beauxbatons students rose, none of the having begun to eat. She saw that the Sammuntians and their chaperones had also risen with empty plates waiting on the tables in front of them. The Hogwarts students had started to laugh all whilst eating when the students stood yet none of the Sammuntians had chosen to return to their seats before she herself had sat. She was surprised that they taught such respect to one's host at Sammuntia. She sighed, clearly it was different in Hogwarts, and in recent years she had come to disagree more and more with Dumbledore over how Hogwarts was run.

Breakfast went normally after this, other than some Beauxbatons students continued to glance over at the four.

Harry and Tanwen went to their lessons with fifth year Beauxbatons students. By the end of the day many Beauxbatons students were already placing bets on Harry winning the tournament. By dinner the news had spread like wildfire that Harry and Tanwen were two of the most skilled and powerful magicians to attend Beauxbatons. Tanwen was just happy that she was still attending the lessons with Harry.

* * *

It was a week later that a member of the Beauxbatons staff discovered Harry and Tanwen wrapped up together in one bed since they had been late to their first class. The resulting conversation with Madame Maxime had embarrassed them both but they had been allowed to retain the right to share a bed so long as they did not perform any acts 'unfitting for their age'. It was another week before Carrog managed to persuade the wood nymphs not to kneel whenever they entered a room.

Friday came quickly and with it came the Weighing of the Wands. A wandcrafter who lived in Beauxbatons Palace and tended to the wands of the students and staff was performing the ceremony. A reporter for La Gazette Du Sorcier was going to interview Harry about his surprise entry after the ceremony.

Madame Maxime and the wandcrafter entered. "May I introduce Monsieur Vendatous?" A short man stood beside her, he had kind face though he was clearly very elderly.

"Mademoiselle Delacour, if you could be first." Monsieur Vendatous called out. Fleur stepped forwards. Monsieur Vendatous examined the wand, producing a variety of flowers and coloured sparks. He then lunged forward and slashed. A large chunk of the wall had been gouged out behind Fleur. "It shall do." He returned the wand to her.

"Monsieur Diggory!" he called next. Monsieur Vendatous examined his wand and wrote a name in the air with smoke. He then summoned a fiend-fire lion. He banished the lion and then the remaining smoke. "It shall do." He returned the wand.

"Monsieur Krum!" was third. His wand was thoroughly examined, as if Monsieur Vendatous was attempting to memorise everything about it. "Gregorovitch?" Krum nodded. Monsieur Vendatous sighed. "A foolish man but alas, the best of wands seem to come to fools." A flock of birds came from the end of the wand and flew out of the window. "It shall do."

A fourth name didn't come. "The fourth champion's wand is beyond me. The wand crafters at Sammuntia are highly skilled, clearly."

"You must inspect each wand else it cannot be used in the tournament Monsieur." A ministry official said.

"Monsieur Vendatous grumbled before taking Harry's wand. He examined the wand much longer than any of the others. "Wish I could cap a metal wand, my attempts explode." A fountain of wine leapt forth. Then a golden goblet. Monsieur Vendatous looked at the goblet in shock. "This is a very powerful wand Monsieur Potter, to be able to create true gold," he shook his head, "I know who I shall be betting on." He returned the wand and began to drink from the fountain with the goblet.

It was a tired Harry that fell into Tanwen's arms that evening. He'd spent hours being interviewed and then taking photographs. Tanwen gave him the homework that had been set and then tucked his head into her side. Moments later he was asleep.

* * *

Carrog returned to his room. Several letters lay waiting. The top one was from Lord Fallon, he had been wondering how much long he would be sending his ships out on rescue missions. Another seven Kraken attacks had struck at wizarding merchant ships. Apparently some of his captains were trying to find out what was attacking the ships. Lord Fallon threatened to tell his captains and even to take the matter to the UN. The ongoing conflict was tiring him and he wasn't even a part of it.

Carrog put the letter down and began to write back. He would have to arrange for Guardsmen to capture the crews of the merchants ships themselves, so long as the cargo was lost to the sea he would consider the blockade effective. He also asked Cysged about putting operatives into the UN and trying to persuade the Muggle international community to keep out of the conflict.

* * *

Albus Dumbledore returned to his office at Hogwarts. The Ministry had lost contact with two villages in the Outer Hebrides and the creatures of the Forbidden Forest had reclaimed the forest all the way back to Hogwarts grounds in his absence. Several of his documents about Harry Potter appeared to have had ink spilt all across them. He attempted a spell to clear away the ink but it just left several nonsense words instead of the documents he had managed to get a hold of. It seemed that someone had used a fidelius charm that included his documents.

He shook his head. Edward hadn't been entered into the tournament. Albus had thought that when he brought Professor Moody to Beauxbatons it would result in Edward's name being entered. Now though, Albus was worried. If Tom wanted Harry Potter then Albus was in a precarious position. This second twin had no loyalty to him and had detected Albus' various legilimency attacks. He had also avoided all of his attempts to persuade the boy to talk with him. If the boy couldn't be controlled peacefully then there were other ways.

He had kept his surname as Potter. Surely the boy still felt a connection to his family. Perhaps his mother could speak with the boy.


	27. La Guivre

Disclaimer: In chapter one.

AN: Please review. Sorry for the long wait, lost all of the files on my computer.

Albus had noticed that Harry and Miss Darian often wandered the palace unaccompanied, and that Miss Darian's parents left the palace often. Where to, he did not know, and for now it didn't matter. Lily had arrived that morning after breakfast. He saw Harry and Miss Darian walking down a corridor in front of him. "Mister Potter!"

Harry turned towards the sound of his name. The sight of his mother in the palace shocked him, he hadn't thought that Dumbledore would be allowed to bring more staff to the school. He knew what they wanted. "Are Carrog and Cysged still here?" He whispered to Tanwen. She shook her head. He nodded slowly. "Find Alexander and tell them what's going on, you know where I'll be." He kissed her on the top of her head and she walked away quickly.

Harry turned back to his approaching mother and Dumbledore. "Your mother wanted to talk with you, she has missed you greatly and was very glad that you have been found once more." Harry nodded once, a cursory glance of Lily Potter was enough to show that she hadn't cared at all about whether he was found or not.

Dumbledore smiled benignly and turned about leading them into the part of the palace that housed the Hogwarts students. They entered an office filled with antique and ornate furniture. Lily stood beside the desk at the far side of the room and Dumbledore slipped back out of the doorway.

Harry looked about the room, the blue curtains had a golden trim to them and covered the closed window behind the desk, an entire wall was devoted to bookshelves and what seemed like thousands of books rested upon them. The other side of the office was a bare beige wall.

"I've missed you. I'm ever so glad that you've returned to us. If Mr and Mrs Darian were here I'd thank them most sincerely for looking after my son. I was very worried when you went missing. Your brother and father are here too, they'd like to see you as well." Harry met her eyes and she shivered, he knew that she was lying, every word that she had said was scripted. He also heard the implied question in her voice at the end.

Harry nodded once slowly, studying the face of the mother who had abandoned him. "Sure, I don't mind meeting them." Edward and James Potter entered suddenly, clearly they were listening in. Harry rolled his eyes, Edward's face was carrying a very obvious scowl and James' control of his face also wasn't willing to hide his displeasure at Harry's flippant attitude to their meeting.

"Don't you know who I am, little brother? I'm the Boy-Who-Lived and I'm heir to the Potter family estate, little brother. Of course you have been living with that foreign little girl so I suppose I can forgive your ignorance." Harry sat down in the chair.

"I suppose, while we are forgiving ignorance, I shall forgive that you have forgotten that the Potter family estate is inherited through Gavelkind laws my brother, we are both heirs." Edward's face went red and James' face was imitating him.

It was clear that Edward was about to respond and James and Lily turned a blind eye to the growing conflict between the two twins. They knew that in their will they had chosen to specifically state Edward as the only inheritor. "Perhaps mum and dad have chosen to switch to the modern inheritance laws, little brother. Perhaps they wouldn't want anyone who was dating the ugly cow that you are to have a single knut!"

Harry fixed Edward with a cold glare. Edward continued to rant about Tanwen's unworthiness of a Potter and how Harry sullied his name by dating a foreign low-born girl. Harry stood up suddenly. Blue lightning sparked through his hair as his eyes became alight with the flames of fury.

An arc of golden magic reached out from his body to the wall and tore a channel out of it. Several bolts of blue lightning set about igniting the office, bookshelves scattered their books upon the floor and the desk quickly blackened. A storm brewed in the sky. Gale-force winds shattered windows and toppled statues in the courtyards as they raced about Beauxbatons Palace. Rolls of thunder rained down on the Pyrenees and day became night. All of the sun's warmth disappeared from the palace and its surroundings.

In the office the Potters were screaming in terror, the only light in the room coming from the arcs of magic crackling through the air and gouging the walls of the room. The shattered window and the ashes of the now powdered desk whipped up into a tempest and the flames dancing in Harry's eyes become more pronounced. Dumbledore forced the door open and a blast of wind threw him back into the corridor.

Then light returned to the palace. The storm faded into thin wispy clouds. The ash and glass tempest settled into a heap as Harry became heaped in Tanwen's arms. Carrog and Cysged rushed into the room. Albus Dumbledore followed them.

The Potters ran from the office into a crowd of Hogwarts students. Several Beauxbatons students were already joining the crowd looking into the office. Tanwen held Harry to her tightly as his magic calmed, after spending so long together with their not insignificant magic being allowed to roam freely they had come to understand the feeling of one another's magic well. His eyes opened.

"Oh my! What has happened?" Madame Maxime had arrived. Harry looked over Tanwen's shoulder at the Headmistress. He saw Dumbledore picking a few splinters from his left hand with his wand and the Headmistress had an expression of horror on her face as she gazed about the thoroughly destroyed room. None of the stones that made up the room were without severe scorching.

"I'm sorry Madame Maxime, I allowed my magic to run wild in anger. I apologise for any damage done. I hope no-one has been hurt." He spoke in French to her.

"I shall pay for all and any damages, Madame, it is not beyond me to do so." Carrog spoke from beside the window, he was looking out onto the palace grounds.

"This shall not be necessary Monsieur Darian, and there have been no injuries reported to me of yet Monsieur Potter. I apologise that your fear-worthy anger was awoken while you were a guest with me." She turned and left, heading away to assess the storm's effects on the palace.

Tanwen led Harry out and to their bed, passing the whispering crowds on their way.

* * *

Their potions professor was the one to broach the subject of the Yule Ball. "All students from the fourth year and above may attend the Yule Ball this year as part of the Triwizard Tournament. For any students who do not know how to dance," at this she glanced at Harry and Tanwen, "there will be lessons every Saturday. You are dismissed. Monsieur Potter, Mademoiselle Darian please stay behind for a moment."

The other students streamed out of the class, already chattering about the upcoming event. "The Beauxbatons students are taught to dance from their first year here onwards, I do not know if anything similar occurred at Sammuntia but the champions and their partners are required to open the dance." He looked at the both. "I should hope that you will ensure, therefore, that you both have as enjoyable a time this Yule Ball as you can." He then turned and left the classroom.

* * *

A few days later saw the start of the first task. A grand stadium had been erected to one side of the palace gardens and a pair of small pavilions were beside one another, attached to the stadium wall. Harry and Tanwen walked down from Beauxbaton Palace to the gardens, they felt that they were as prepared as they were going to get.

Tanwen kissed Harry gently on his lips and whispered, "Come back." She pushed him towards the right-most pavilion. He took her hand and flipped it palm up. He traced the soft scar line that they had made two years before.

"Of course." he walked backwards into the yellow flap that made up the pavilion entrance. Tanwen continued on to the stairs into the stadium and rushed up to find a good seat.

Harry looked around the pavilion. Krum was sat on a bench watching the exit on the far side of the pavilion, Cedric Diggory was looking at Harry with impatience and Fleur was looking past him, though at what Harry couldn't tell. A ministry official came into the pavilion with a hand of four cards. He splayed them in his hands and directed them towards Fleur, face down.

"Mademoiselle Delacoeur, if you would select a card please." Fleur drew a card from his hand, a bright yellow three shone out against a black background. The official turned to Cedric, "And you Monsieur Diggory." A silver one marked a dark blue card. Then the official looked at the two boys left, he stepped towards Krum who quickly pulled a card free from the official's grip. A red two bled onto a white card. This left only a lively green four on a brown card.

The ministry official went to the exit flap and turned to address them all. "You are tasked with capturing a Guivre, alive, this is not an easy task. I shall warn you that Guivres are vicious creatures. Your card informs you of the order in which you shall go. When you hear the cannon it is time for the next contestant. Do you understand?" He received four nods. He nodded in reply before slipping into the stadium.

Soon a cannon fired from above them. Cedric stepped out from the pavilion. Silence fell. They couldn't hear the commentary from within the waiting area. Krum went to his bench from earlier and Fleur began to pace the edge of the pavilion. Harry strained to hear what was happening inside the stadium.

A loud scream punctured the silencing charm. Then, after that, every sound seemed to reach them. The gasps of horror, the shouting and even at one point a whimper. Then raucous applause replaced the earlier, more terrifying sounds.

A second cannon shot. Krum waddled forward, his wand already in his grip, and disappeared beyond the cloth edge to the pavilion. Again silence fell. It was several minutes before a third cannon shot. Fleur looked up from her pacing in fear, they hadn't heard anything, not even applause, that time. She composed herself at the exit and strode out of the pavilion.

Harry was left alone in the silence of the waiting area. Gasps began to filter into the pavilion, they didn't seem to be gasps of horror or fear however. He wondered what had happened. The cannon fired again, much sooner than before. He walked forwards and raised the flap of the pavilion.

On the far side of the stadium floor sat a long serpentine body, its head bore thick horns and its tail arced from side to side displaying a vast array of white spikes. The body of the creature was a dark grey and it was laid resting between two shallow lakes. Harry stepped forward and the creature's head snapped around to meet him.

Harry continued forwards. The Guivre bared sharpened teeth and bent its spiny tail over its head. Harry thought back to what he had spent several evenings studying. Beauxbatons had always used the Triwizard Tournament as a chance to showcase ancient Gallic folklore and magics, so much so that they were often considered to be directly in favour of the French students. The Guivre was a creature which lived in France and there were only two ways of defeating it. Holy Water had a corrosive effect on its scaly skin. The task, however, was to capture it alive.

Harry stopped walking suddenly, he had lost track of the Guivre. He spun about looking for the large creature. A flash of grey rippled over the surface of a stone before a bone white spine hurtled through the air past him. He dove backwards losing a shoe in the process. The Guivre had paused to look at the shoe. Harry recalled a second method that had been discovered for defeating a Guivre. Guivres were irrationally fearful of the naked form of humans. He slipped off his other shoe and pulled off both socks. The Guivre backed away slightly.

Harry's shirt came off next to catcalls and whistles from the audience above. He flushed red. His eyes searched for Tanwen. Their eyes met and she flushed too before leaning backwards in her seat and pretending to be disinterested in the display before her. They both grinned at one another. The Guivre had slipped to the edge of the stadium. Harry carefully picked his way across to it. The Guivre squirmed against the wall of the stadium as he approached. He pressed a hand to the Guivre's horned crown and it passed out due to his bared chest being so very close to it.

He went back to his clothes and redressed himself before finding Tanwen again and blowing her a kiss he went to the second pavilion to be checked over by a medi-witch before being released to return to the palace. He had scored 37 since the judges felt that he hadn't used magic to significant enough an effect. Carrog and Cysged told him later that the judges didn't know what they were talking about, after all Guardsmen carried non-magical weaponry with them.

* * *

Winter fell quickly in the Pyrenees. The Yule Ball followed shortly after the first snows. Tanwen came out of the room that she shared with Harry in a beautiful strapless dark green dress that flared out at her calves. Her hair was loose down her back and the different shades of fiery red and orange intertwined in it to give off the impression of liquid flames dancing within her hair and flowing down her back. Golden stars sparkled within her chocolate brown eyes. Harry was awestruck as she entered the common room that they shared with Carrog and Cysged.

Harry was dressed in a simple dark green dress robe that accentuated his emerald eyes. Dark green flames danced within them, rolling upon one another like waves, his messy black ran freely over his head made only messier when Tanwen pushed a hand through it and laughed softly. He grinned and leant forward to claim her lips with his own. Several moments later they set off for the Great Hall together.

They reached the grand doors to the Great Hall where the other champions and their partners were waiting. Shortly after their arrival the doors opened and they all entered. Several ice sculptures stood to attention on either side of their path into the hall. Tens of round tables filled the room and swans made from snow flew between the rafters. At the far end of the Great Hall a single table ran the width of the room.

As the procession walked into the hall and towards the table Harry saw the awe filled looks of the boys as the stared at Tanwen while many of the girls seemed to be rather envious of her, he had noticed that many of them had taken an interest in him since the first task.

They reached the high table and sat down. The meal started shortly afterwards with wood nymphs dashing about the hall delivering some of the finest meals available. At the high table the conversation, mercifully, kept away from the triwizard tournament and headmaster Dumbledore didn't attempt to hold a conversation with either Harry or Tanwen. They could see that he had a thin scar down his right cheek from the last time he invited Harry to have a conversation.

Soon the meal was over and it was time for the champions to start the dance. Harry gave Tanwen his hand and led her over to the dance floor. He held her close to him and kissed her gently before taking position for a traditional waltz. The musicians began to play and the world around them dissolved as they took their first steps.

Harry and Tanwen spiralled and waltz across the floor, their whole attention on one another, and the attention of the whole hall on them as well. Flames rippled down Tanwen's back splashing onto the floor whilst blue lightning arced between them. A burst of white flames domed over them before rolling outwards into the hall, only fading when it struck the walls. The white fire was cool to the touch and didn't even disturb the ice sculptures as it enveloped them before rolling onwards.

Albus Dumbledore leant closer to Carrog and Cysged. "Your daughter is well-named." He looked at them with an eyebrow raised.

"What is there to a name?" Carrog and Cysged left the hall to enjoy their evening alone together elsewhere. Tanwen and Harry continued to dance late into the night, entirely unaware of the other dancers who took to the floor. They only stopped when Tanwen's head lay nestled into the side of Harry's shoulder and the music quietened for the last time.

Harry swept Tanwen up into his arms, receiving a soft giggle as a response, and carried the slight girl through the corridors of the palace, only occasionally pausing to lean down and kiss her.


	28. The Hall of Records

Disclaimer: In chapter One.

AN: Hi, sorry for being really lazy and not getting any work done for a few months. Can't promise any regularity with this story.

* * *

A week after the ball, an official was waiting outside of the guest suite. "Monsieur Potter, your second task will be three weeks from today. You will be tasked with rescuing a hostage who Madame Maxime has already selected." He nodded towards Tanwen. "Mademoiselle Darian shall serve as your hostage, this is not for debate. In the Pyrenees lives a rare species of Carcohl. This shall be the threat to your hostage, she will be placed within its territory and you must recover her." He turned on his heel and walked away down the corridor. Harry looked at Tanwen, a frown on his face. She rolled her eyes at him and pecked him on his frowning lips before leading him down to the Great Hall for breakfast.

Carrog and Cysged arrived shortly afterwards and after being told of the second task offered to help Harry in any necessary way. They mentioned that the Cadair, in which Harry and Tanwen had trained for the last year, was previously the mountain home of a Carcohl. The death of whom had caused the summit of the mountain to collapse into a bowl shape.

* * *

It was another two days before Carrog had permission from the Headmistress to take them both off-site to visit an archive of the Guardsmen. They arrived in the rather fertile Nile river valley. To one side of them the seemingly endless blue waters rushed past, the Nilometers clearly marking that the river was either about to flood or had flooded recently.

They walked through flat-roofed sandstone buildings and a sprawling bazaar enveloped them before eventually they came upon a dead end. A little boy with sand blonde hair and torn clothing leapt across the narrow alley way from one roof to another. The wall before them shimmered and became a light blue. Three golden circle were marked into the wall, each larger than the one below it. A bright red flame danced atop the largest circle. Carrog put a hand to the middle circle and the wall collapsed into dust.

An elderly man, wearing robes of the same light blue as the wall that had just stood at the end of the alleyway, stepped forwards. He grasped Carrog's hand in both of his and kissed it gently before pulling the hand to his chest and releasing it. Carrog nodded to the man, even as the man shrunk and his hair faded into a sand blonde.

Though not quite the age of the boy that had leapt over them outside he was now very much a young man. "Curator, it has been a very long time since you visited this archive. I had feared that you had lost interest in the knowledge that you had entrusted to us."

Carrog smiled slightly, "In truth, Theo, I have come here such that my ward and his life mate can study a topic of interest to them. Though may just have a browse, one never knows what can be found in these places."

"And which topic might interest the Curator's young ward?" Theo looked towards Harry.

"We were interested in finding out about carcohls." Theo nodded before closing his eyes and humming a short tune to himself.

"This way then young sir, I trust that you know this place better than I do Curator?" Carrog nodded and began to wander down a tunnel leading under the streets of the Egyptian river port above. Theo took a hand of each of Harry and Tanwen before rushing into another tunnel. "This the Hall of Records young ones. The Curators set this up many, many years ago, before even the demise of Atlantis, although there are other, older archives elsewhere also." They entered a large stone cavern with bookshelves as far as the eye could see. There was no obvious source of lighting yet the cavern was well lit. The roar of falling water could be heard off to the right.

Theo led them to a desk several smaller aisles down. A single tome lay open on the desk. "These pages will answer the question you seek to answer. They will." He then turned and disappeared around a corner and out of sight. Harry looked at Tanwen in amusement.

"Curator is a new name." Tanwen whispered.

"A member of the Hand wouldn't call them by a military term I suppose. Why are you whispering, there's no one here, and if there was there's a waterfall that's way louder than you are?" Harry replied.

Tanwen slapped his arm. "It's a library." She put a finger to his lips and sat down at the desk. The book was handwritten, it was a detailed account of the slaying of a carcohl that inhabited Cadair prior to the use of the mountain by the Guardsmen. Harry slipped into a chair beside her. They began to read through the passage.

It had been a harsh ice age, but the glaciers were retreating and the thousand year winter was thawing. The Guardsmen had come across the Cadair when a member of the group was pulled into a nest of tunnels by a long green tentacle. The rest of the group had rushed into the mountain network. They had been too late to save their colleague and in vengeance had attempted to penetrate the thick hide of the carcohl. When that had failed, they regrouped outside of the mountain. The set camp at the entrance to one tunnel and carved a toilet into the glacier that would eventually retreat into the heights of Snowdonia. The thawing ice age had left many such glaciers unstable.

A large section of the glacier shattered into thousands upon thousands of shards as it slid through boulder fields and into foothills before colliding with the mountainside The Guardsmen scattered and an acrid green smoke billowed forth from the tunnel network. Upon re-entering the main chamber that the Carcohl had lived within the group discovered the carcohl's carcass, thin shards of ice still reacting with the blood of the Carcohl that painted the walls of the cave.

Tanwen looked thoughtful. Her right hand went to play with her own hair and the left pulled her lower lip free from her teeth before allowing them to toy with it again. "So you just need to get ice into its blood?" Harry nodded, it seemed that way. "Well magic didn't penetrate its hide so I suppose you'd need a Muggle weapon, a bow and arrow maybe, with ice tips." She looked up at Harry.

"That wouldn't be too difficult, we can both shoot and Alexander can bring our bows from Sammuntia, the ice tips would be more difficult. Maybe Carrog or Cysged could make ice arrows, ones that don't melt of course since it isn't an ice age anymore." Now Tanwen nodded in agreement.

"But how will you find me, if carcohls live in tunnel networks then it could take forever to find me?" A book slammed down onto a desk further along and fell open.

"Another answer for another question, young sir and miss shall find it on those pages." Harry and Tanwen jumped when Theo spoke behind them.

By the time they had turned Theo had rounded the corner again. The pair stood up from the desk they were at, Harry walked to the other desk while Tanwen jogged to the end of the aisle. Harry looked back at her and she shook her head. The man was nowhere to be seen. She jogged back.

Harry put his hand on the open page and turned to the title of the book. "The Customs and Traditions of the Atlantean Peoples. By Sofia Geros." He turned back to the page that the book had been open on. The book explained that one Atlantean town on the east coast of the island had a custom in which when a member of the town reached their magical maturity and shed their final scale they performed a ritual. The ritual involved spending the night in the salt water of the Mediterranean and marking a soft porous stone with their blood. The end result of the ritual was that the Atlanteans could see the faint traces of recent magic including those of the living magic that inhabited magical people.

However the ritual was dangerous, while very few Atlanteans died to the ritual itself, many had fallen into insanity and their magic had gone wild, fleeing the body entirely and causing devastation for a few moments. It had been when the Prince Anoitos from Atlantis City had visited the town and been persuaded to take part in the tradition that the first tidal wave had struck the island. The next morning the island had succumbed to the fury of the Prince's wild magic.

Tanwen closed the book and turned to Harry. "There's no way you're doing that. You aren't going insane, not while I'm your life mate you're not." Harry kissed the top of her head.

"Lets go find Carrog." He stood and took her hand. She shook her head before standing and allowing him to lead her out into the main aisle. Theo appeared and, after ensuring that their questions had been answered, led them through a series of sandstone tunnels to another desk which Carrog sat at with a large stone disk resting on its side in front of him.

Carrog stood and the disk rose up towards a gap in the shelves where it disappeared. "You've got what you need?" Harry and Tanwen nodded. "Then lets go back and tell Cysged what you've found." He led them to the entrance of the Hall of Records and the wall formed behind them before returning to the sandstone brick of the surrounding neighbourhood.

As they walked through the streets back to the riverbank, Tanwen pointed out the Sphinx looking directly towards the entrance of the Hall of Records.

Shortly after arriving back at Beauxbaton Palace, Tanwen broached the topic of the ritual with Carrog and Cysged. "We decided that the easiest way to defeat the carcohl would be using ice tipped arrows and a bow. While we have bows, we don't have ice tipped arrows." Alexander flamed away. Cysged nodded.

"We can conjure never-melting ice for arrow heads and craft the arrows for you." Cysged told them. Alexander returned with a dark brown recurve bow and deposited it on the table in the centre of the common room before alighting beside Auradain and nuzzling her neck.

"Thank you, we also found a ritual that some Atlanteans used to do that let them see the traces of magic left behind by spells and magical beings..." Tanwen trailed off as Carrog frowned. "I wondered whether the Guardsmen did that?"

Carrog shook his head. "I don't know of any Guardsmen, either order of the Guard or Hand, who has done this ritual. The risks are great. Indeed so much so that the people of Atlantis paid a very hefty price for its casual use."

"So Harry shouldn't do it?" Tanwen sounded hopeful.

"Harry hasn't reached his magical maturity, that is very much obvious, so it is possible that he might be more likely to resist the effects of seeing so much magical essence suddenly. His magic can still adapt quickly to the change. And I don't think we could ever stop him from trying to protect you, no matter the risk to himself."

"I don't need protection." Tanwen mumbled.

Cysged laughed beautifully "Harry will say the same about himself as well." Then Carrog and Cysged went to their bedroom.

* * *

Albus Dumbledore was a very busy man. He had several projects on the go at once and he simply couldn't allow any to be delegated. There was still the matter of persuading Mister Potter to return to Britain with his family, it was becoming increasingly clear that he was a critical piece of the game that was being played. When Madame Maxime had allowed a trip to a library in Egypt, Albus had attempted to follow them. However the family had never arrived at the international arrivals point within Cairo, from which a wizard could then travel to anywhere in Egypt. Yet he had seen them return, sand in Mister Potter's hair.

Then the Unspeakable had returned. They had rebuilt their wall. But the names that they were looking for had changed. The Unspeakable asked Madame Maxime for the chance to interview the entire Darian family. They believed that they were members of an ancient French group known as the Hellequin, who were led by the same Law-Writers that the Unspeakables had been hunting for centuries. She had summarily refused.

Reports flooded in from Magical Britain, the ongoing conflict, while certainly heading towards a ceasefire, was still causing violent skirmishes throughout the country. Even worse, the Muggle Prime Minister had summoned Cornelius and demanded an explanation for a recent magical attack on a Muggle warship. Some traders had mistaken the heavily armoured ship for a Black Knight ship that was blockading Britain. What the traders didn't know was that the destroyer had been there because the Ministry of Defence had received a message from the Guardsmen about the imminent sinking of a merchant ship in the North Sea.

The Prime Minister's threat to Cornelius had been worrying. "If magical people cannot govern magical people, then non-magical people shall."


End file.
